Decoding Dr Reid
by ad03hx
Summary: A head-on collision brings Amelia and Spencer Reid together. The two begin to explore their relationship, but something sinister is stalking Amelia and it's up to Dr. Reid to save her. Slow start, but hopefully worth it! The majority of the story is rated T (and is fairly fluffy), but there will be scenes that are M.
1. Chapter 1

**Decoding Dr. Reid**

**A/N: This is my first fanfic, and I am still relatively new to watching the series. So please R&R, I'd appreciate any constructive criticism. The story is mainly fluff, but there will be some graphic scenes later on that will be clearly labelled at the beginning of the chapter. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds. **

**Chapter 1 **

Amelia threw down her pen in disgust, "this chemistry is _killing_ me!" she thought angrily. "Why on EARTH would I think that high school level chemistry would be similar to university chemistry?! I was crazy to think that I would do well in this simply because I did well in high school. This stupid elective is going bring down my whole average! Why didn't I just take astronomy or rocks-for-jocks like everyone else in Humanities programs? Nooo, I had to be a Miss-smarty-pants and _challenge_ myself."

Sighing and twirling a strand of her straight hair, Amelia considered herself in the mirror. Sometimes it would have been easier to have more beauty than brains she thought, maybe then she wouldn't push herself so hard in school. She considered herself to be pretty with her blue, almond shaped eyes and dark chestnut hair, a gift from her Chinese mother, but not a real knockout.

Amelia let her mind drift back to her education choices and reflected that she had had legitimate reasons for taking the course. She had wanted to take several different courses in order to figure out what area to specialize in for her MA and possibly PhD, since she hadn't quite found her niche when she completed a MA in librarian studies. She knew her passion was history and anthropology and she thought a bit of biology or chemistry would help her out. Belatedly, she realized that biology might have been the better option…even if she did have to dissect something.

It was time for a study break, and Amelia decided that the best way to make the most of the break was to whip up some brownies.

"Hey Melissa, would you like some brownies?" Amelia asked, poking her head into her roommate Melissa's room. The glare of hot pink, sequined decorations made Amelia grimace; her roommate's decorating taste was a high contrast to her own "cottage comfy" tastes.

"Are you making them?" the petite blonde was comfortably sprawled on her hot pink duvet, reading yet another chapter of some French text for her French literature course.

Amelia smiled, her dimples showing, "You know it! I need to de-stress and baking seems to be the best way to do it." She rolled her eyes, "Although, at the rate this chemistry course is going, I'm going to be the size of a house by the time I finish."

Melissa laughed and decided that she was taking Amelia out for a girls' night that weekend. "Give me a sec and I'll come help."

The two girls padded down the short hallway of their apartment towards the small kitchenette that opened into their comfortable living room. It was a routine that the two girls had established in their second year of university in Washington DC, when they had decided to room together after meeting in the university residence. Neither of the girls had been a big fan of the food in the cafeteria. Amelia liked to cook, and Melissa liked to eat, which you wouldn't believe judging from her small, pixie-like figure. A frequent complaint from Amelia was that she always had to really work out to maintain her athletic build, while Melissa could eat like a linebacker in training camp and still look gorgeous. After they had graduated and completed their MAs, Melissa had gotten a job at a small publishing company in nearby Quantico, although she was still taking a couple courses at the university to help her gain a specialty in her work field. Rather than lose her favorite roommate, Amelia had decided to move with her and apply to the local universities so she could continue with her MA in history/anthropology.

Amelia quickly pulled out the stainless steel mixing bowls and ingredients while Melissa headed over to their black second-hand entertainment unit and put on some lively music that they could dance to while baking.

Melissa scrolled through her IPod and picked a lively song by P!nk. She pointed a manicured finger at Amelia, "Girl, you need to get out more. You are going to study yourself into a mental breakdown if you don't loosen up a bit. Why don't we go out for a drink after you finish work on Saturday?"

"I know, but if I don't do well I won't be considered for a scholarship for my PhD, and you know I can't afford to pay for it on my own. My trust fund from the insurance company isn't that big and I need to be careful with it. But a night out does sound good, I'm in." Amelia responded with an exaggerated sigh, this was a common dialogue the two girls had shared over the years. She slipped into quiet thought about how fast her life changed 6 years ago.

Several years ago she had been an average teenager in 11th grade, living with her parents in a 2 storey home in a nice subdivision in Barrie, Ontario. Her older brother Jason, who carried the Asian coloring and features of their mother and the tall, muscular build of their father, had been in his third year of university in Washington D.C. Despite their age difference she really missed him when he was gone; he had always made time to hang out or play a quick round of baseball or hockey depending on the weather. The baseball scholarship had meant a free education, and an opportunity like that wasn't something their parents would let him pass up. Thankfully, they had dual citizenship through their mother who was born in Rochester, New York, which made everything a little easier.

She loved her hometown, the small bustling city right by the lake. Unfortunately, the winters could be quite brutal with heavy snow storms and frigid temperatures. That particular winter her parents were driving home from Toronto, when they were hit by a drunk driver. Their car careened over a patch of black ice, and was then hit by a truck. They never did make it home from the concert. After the accident, Amelia moved in with her parents' best friends, and her godparents. She had no other close family, and wanted to finish high school with some sense of continuity. During her last year, her brother encouraged her to join him down Washington, where he had obtained a job as a political reporter. Amelia decided that was a good plan, applied to several universities in the area, and was accepted. She was glad to have moved to Quantico though, she loved her brother but it was time for her to find her own feet.

Amelia let her naturally sunny attitude come through, and smiled as she decided that the past few years in the USA had been good ones. She had even found a better job; putting her baking, cooking, and excellent people skills to work at a local cafe called, Poppy's. The café sported trendy, reclaimed furniture and a homey atmosphere that caused people to return again and again. It was a great place to work so far, flexible hours, a decent wage (very rare for a student to find), and a really interesting clientele – who frequently left good tips, which was always a plus! Poppy's was a few blocks over from the FBI headquarters, and frequently had agents popping in for endless amounts of coffee. The café was also popular with the local law enforcement and college age crowd. Most importantly, it was also on her bus route, which made getting to and from work a bit easier since Amelia didn't have a car.

The two girls devoured their gooey brownies with sneaky grins while reclining on their comfortable brown leather couch, and then headed back to the solitude of their rooms for more studying.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds**

**Chapter 2**

"I love the fall, but nothing is as spectacular as the forests changing color back home." Amelia mused to herself, as she walked towards the building for her next class. The cool breeze blew some of her hair into her face and obstructed her view. She had just finished picking up some research books at the campus library and was balancing all her books in her arms. Of course, she was also looking _up_ instead of _ahead_ and walked right into a tall, slender man with dirty blonde hair causing both of their book stacks to go flying.

Amelia quickly kneeled down on the paved pathway to pick up his books and hers, and hit his chin with her head as he bent down to do the same. "I'm so sorry! I'm such a klutz, I was daydreaming, and not paying attention. Are you okay?" She babbled out.

The young man gave her an awkward nod, "I'm fine, do you have all your books?"

"Are you sure? I.." Amelia trailed off, finally noticing how good looking the guy was. He had a sort of geeky, but strong persona to him, even if he did seem to be a bit shy. "Yeah, I think I have them all, let me double check that I don't have any of yours mixed in." Quickly she shuffled through her towering pile, and managed to drop her chemistry book. Spitefully, she glared down at the offensive text, _of course_ that one had to fall again. It seemed as though that entire course, textbook included, was out to make her life miserable, up to and including making her look like an incompetent idiot in front of this cute guy.

Her mystery man bent down and picked up the book, and offered it to her.

"I hate that thing." Amelia muttered, blushing as she accepted it from him.

He paused as if debating whether or not to say anything, "Did you know that chemistry is sometimes called "the central science" because it bridges the other scientific branches like physics, biology, and geology with each other? It has been studied for millennia, although in ancient history it was called alchemy, of which a primary goal was to find a way to turn metals into gold. This of course cannot be done as they are completely different elements."

Amelia stared at him in astonishment – people didn't just _know_ stuff like that normally, the guy rocked on his feet and gave an awkward nod as he started off again down the path. "_I'm such an idiot, Morgan keeps telling me that I always bore or scare the girls away…"_ Spencer thought to himself.

"Wait a second!" Amelia called, jogging over to him, "You sound like you really know your chemistry!" She stopped in front of him, smiling, a brilliant idea had just occurred to her.

"Well, I have a Ph.D. in chemistry, as well as in engineering and mathematics. I also hold B.A.s in psychology and sociology and am currently…" Spencer began to rattle off.

"Oh no, I'm really sorry! I didn't realize you were a professor here!" Amelia was even more embarrassed, now that she realized he was a professor, although it wasn't really her fault since he looked so young. Really, he looked only a few years older than her! "_Ugh, could this get any worse?" _ She thought to herself as her plans went up in smoke.

He rushed to assure her, "No, no. I'm not a professor here. I'm actually completing my B.A. in philosophy."

"Seriously? That's a lot of degrees! How did you manage so many? You must really be some kind of genius to do all that!" Amelia paused, realizing that she was giving the poor man the third degree and she hadn't even introduced herself properly. "I mean…I'm sorry, that was rude. Can we start over? My name is Amelia Brooke, and I'm currently completing my MA in history and anthropology."

He gave her a shy smile, "My name is Dr. Spencer Reid, but you can call me Spencer or Reid. I don't mind the question, I get asked that frequently. I am a certified genius with an IQ of 187 and an eidetic memory. I attended CalTech when I was 12 and continued on from there." Spencer decided to try and keep his description short. He tended to make people uncomfortable when he dropped tons of information and statistics on him, or at least that's what Morgan kept telling him, and for a change he actually wanted to make a good impression on a girl.

"Wow, I'm suitably impressed." Amelia gave him a saucy grin. "Well, I don't suppose you would want to, but what the heck…I don't suppose you tutor do you?" She knew it was a long shot, but she was getting desperate, and so far the only other suitable tutors had not worked out.

Spencer opened his eyes wide in surprise that was definitely the last thing he had expected to come out of her mouth. A pretty, no, gorgeous girl, was actually talking to him and asking him if he tutored? He gave her a quick look over trying to ascertain whether or not she was serious. Her 5'6", athletic build gave off all the body language and facial expressions of someone who was telling the truth and actually hoping he would say yes.

"Um, I suppose I could." _Absolutely!_ He thought to himself, as he nervously looked away from the bubbly coed. _ Wait until Morgan gets a hold of this, he'll never leave me alone, he thought, _ "My work hours can be a little crazy, but I am usually free on Sundays."

Amelia gazed at him in happy surprise, "Seriously?! That's fantastic! I'm free on Sundays before 11am and after 4pm. I really REALLY appreciate this!" Her face reddened slightly, "Uh, how much do you charge?"

"Charge? No, no charge. I like teaching and helping people." Spencer stuttered out.

"Wow, you are the best thing to happen to me in a long time! I tell you what. I'm a great cook, and I'll make you brunch or dinner as a thank you. I knew a few super smart guys, although maybe not quite as smart as you, back home and their cooking skills were awful. Endless cans of Ragu and cans of beans."

Spencer instantly flushed, thinking of his own bare cupboards that contained exactly 3 cans of beans, 1 tin of coffee, a bag of sugar, and some Ragu. "That would be great," he mumbled.

The two exchanged contact information and agreed to meet up at the campus library that Sunday, and if all went well, they would have dinner back at her place afterwards. _A girl has to play it safe these days, and a public meeting before bringing him home is definitely the smarter thing to do._ She thought to herself as she hustled over to her class. _It's a good thing that Melissa will be there too._

nt wa6 v r ȓ/ * r a student to find), and a really interesting clientele – who frequently left good tips, which was always a plus! Poppy's was a few blocks over from the FBI headquarters, and frequently had agents popping in for endless amounts of coffee. The café was also popular with the local law enforcement and college age crowd. Most importantly, it was also on her bus route, which made getting to and from work a bit easier since Amelia didn't have a car.

The two girls devoured their gooey brownies with sneaky grins while reclining on their comfortable brown leather couch, and then headed back to the solitude of their rooms for more studying.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds**

**Chapter 3**

The day passed in a bit of daze for Reid, enough so that most of his team noticed. Morgan leaned on Spencer's desk and threw a questioning glance at him, "Hey kid, what's up? Everything okay? You're unusually quiet this afternoon."

Prentiss looked up over her paperwork and joined in, "Yeah, you completely missed an opportunity to tell me how many people died due to vending machines accidents last year."

"From 1978 to 1995 at least 37 people died in vending machine accidents. 2-3 people die per year due to shaking vending machines. You are 4 times more likely to die because of a vending machine than a shark attack." Reid absentmindedly remarked.

"You're avoiding the question my man." Morgan's eyes began to light up as he saw Reid begin to shift uncomfortably in his seat.

Prentiss smiled, "Now you have my curiosity peaked. What's up? You were fine before you went to class."

"Well, I…uh, was run into by a girl, and then she asked me to tutor her in chemistry?" The last part came out sounding more like a question, even to Reid's own ears. "It's nothing big, it just caught me by surprise and I'm going over all pertinent information so that I won't waste her time…" he trailed off not really wanting to hand out any more ammunition to Morgan.

"Aww, look, pretty boy is growing up! I bet she's pretty too! Good job man!" Morgan grinned at him. He was about to continue when JJ walked by calling them to a briefing on a new case. Reid stood up and breathed a sigh of relief, happy to have dodged anymore teasing for the moment.

The next few days passed quickly for Reid as they worked a case in Tennessee. Thankfully, he was able to put thoughts of Amelia out of his head and focus on the UnSub who was running people off the road and shooting them.

By the time Saturday rolled around, he was thankful to be back home with the UnSub safely locked up in jail and the paperwork completed. It always bothered him when teenagers turned out to be killers, so much wasted potential. He sighed, realizing that his cupboards were bare and his fridge sported a half block of cheese and some spoiled milk. "_Side effects of the job."_ He mused to himself, "_you never know when you have to pick up and leave"._ Any further thoughts were cut off by his phone ringing.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Spencer? It's Amelia, I was just calling to see if we were still on for tomorrow?"

"Yes, of course. 4pm in the campus library."

"Great! I'll see you then. Come hungry!" Some dishes clanking and people talking were buzzing around in the background as she quickly disconnected the phone and Spencer realized she must be calling from work.

Spencer stared at the phone and thought about his pending study session with Amelia. Before he could get any further into thought his phone rang again. Seeing the call display showing Morgan's number he hit the talk button.

"Hey Morgan. What can I do for you?" thankful that Morgan couldn't see his bright eyes and slightly flushed face.

"I just realized I have no food in my fridge, and I'm too beat to go shopping and cook. Want to grab some food? Garcia is coming too. I can pick you up on the way."

"Sure. See you in a few."

20 minutes later Morgan's car pulled in front of Reid's building and he jumped in. "So where are we eating?"

"Penelope wanted to go to Poppy's, she said they have an awesome spread for Saturday evening."

"Sounds good to me." Poppy's was a popular place with the FBI, local law enforcement, and college students. The reasonable prices, long hours, and surprisingly good quality food tended to act as a homing beacon for these often hungry individuals.

Morgan's phone rang as they were driving, "This is Morgan. Yeah, we are actually on our way there now. Alright, see you in a few." He looked over at Reid, "looks like everyone else was thinking what we were. The rest of the team is on their way to Poppy's as well. JJ and Hotch are bringing the boys."

Reid smiled, he loved spending time with his godson and Jack. They of course thoroughly enjoyed his magic tricks.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thanks to Esmile89 for the reviews. I've made a few changes to the previous chapters (I added a few more details) and I hope that the changes to this one make it a bit easier to follow the dialogue.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds**

**Chapter 4**

Amelia blew out a tired breath of air. The Saturday dinner rush was busier than normal, and she had just been told to go prepare a table for 8 adults and two kids. It was only her second week working at the restaurant, but she loved it already, especially since the owner let her do some experimenting in the kitchen when it was slow.

Just as she finished getting the large table ready, a serious looking man with an adorable little boy appeared. "Hi, reservation for 10 under Hotchner."

"Sure, right this way." Amelia offered him a smile and led him over to the table. Just as she finished placing the menus down, more people arrived and began making their way over to the table.

"Let me go bring you some water while the rest of your party arrives." She smiled.

"Thanks."

By the time she arrived back at the table the entire group had arrived and were chatting merrily around the table. Amelia began to hand out drinks when she noticed Spencer sitting beside one of the adorable boys performing what looked like a magic trick. "_Oh no! He's not married is he? There's no way, he's too young to already have kids"_ "She shot a quick look at his hand and saw it was bare of any rings, and released a relieved breath. "_Nighttime fantasies of a married man just screams of icky."_ She thought to herself.

"Spencer! Hi! I didn't know you would be coming here." Amelia's words managed to silence the entire table as everyone stared at her and Spencer in shock.

Morgan took in Reid's deer-in-headlights expression, and decided to help him out. Morgan turned towards Amelia, "You must be Reid's new study partner." He gave Reid a swift kick under the table.

Spencer took the hint and introduced Amelia to the group, "Uh, yes, that's Amelia. I'm going to help her with some chemistry."

Before the others could say anything to further embarrass Spencer, Amelia took pity on his obvious discomfort and asked what everyone wanted to drink, cutting off any other teasing remarks. Spencer sent her a grateful look and then ducked his head again. After promising to return in a moment with the drinks, Amelia made her way to the bar. "_Poor Spencer, he's obviously a little awkward and they are going to give him such a hard time over nothing. Although, to be honest, I wish there was something. He's so…different from other guys. I definitely wouldn't mind taking a bite out of him". _She snapped out of her thoughts and began to gather up the drinks for the group, thankful that his party was her only table at the moment.

The group watched Amelia's quickly retreating back and Penelope squealed in a barely controlled voice, "Oooh! Our baby is growing up! He's a got a date and everything!"

Spencer protested, "It's just a study session! …and maybe dinner afterwards."

"Dinner?" JJ asked.

Spencer's last mumbled comment caught everyone's attention and he began to stammer. "I wouldn't let her pay me, so she offered to feed me, and I'm not the best cook, and I knew it would make her feel better, because she's the type of person who doesn't like to be in someone's debt."

"You're rambling kid." Prentiss smirked at him.

"Leave the him alone for now guys, she's on her way back." Rossi slid in.

Amelia's friendly and inquisitive personality took over when she arrived back at the table with the requested drinks. "So how do you guys all know each other?" She had decided not to single out Spencer, knowing it would make him even more uncomfortable.

"We're all co-workers." Hotch piped in, as he quickly grabbed Jack's milk before it spilled all over the wooden table. After righting the cup and averting the near disaster he introduced everyone in their group to Amelia.

Amelia couldn't resist finding out more about her newfound crush, "Oh neat, where do you guys work?"

"We work in the BAU at the FBI." JJ piped in, well except for my husband here. She gave Will a playful poke on his arm.

Amelia laughed at JJ's antics, "You guys sure love your acronyms! What does BAU stand for if you don't mind me asking?"

"Did you know acronyms were very rarely used until the 20th century…," Spencer started.

Worried that Spencer might scare Amelia with his statistics Morgan cut him off, "It stands for Behavioral Analysis Unit. We profile criminals, the really bad ones, in order to help out the local law enforcement around the country."

"And I am their tech goddess!" Penelope piped in.

Amelia was stunned, "Wow! That was not what I was expecting. That sounds really interesting but really hard. Oh, I'm sorry I should take your orders before you all starve!" She quickly started scribbling down their orders, and then once again retreated towards the kitchen, this time with her shoulders drooping. "_If I thought he was out of my league before, I'm seriously stuck now. He was probably just being nice to me. Damn, I really wish Melissa had been right about him liking me"._

JJ and Prentiss eyed her slower walk and fallen shoulders. After a shared glance JJ turned to Reid, "Spence, I think she likes you and is feeling a little intimidated by you and the rest of us." She decided to leave it at that, and let him sort it out.

Morgan however wasn't going to let it drop, "Here's what you got to do kid. Tomorrow, after your study session you make your move."

Spencer finally looked up, "Morgan, how many girls have you had that lasted past a night or two?" The rest of the group started to shake with laughter, Reid didn't often trade barbs with Morgan, but when he did it was always entertaining.

"Well, none really." Morgan laughed back.

"Then, I think I will handle it from here. But thanks guys." Spencer's voice closed the subject, but he continued to think to himself, "_Besides, I REALLY doubt she actually likes me for more than my brain and how it can help her." _

Penelope decided that her Boy Wonder needed a friendly helping hand, and after Amelia had delivered all the meals, she asked, "So, we're regulars here but I haven't seen you around before."

"Oh, I just took this job a couple weeks ago when my roommate and I got an apartment nearby. I love cooking and baking, and _obviously_ I'm super chatty, so this seemed like a good fit. Plus, the owners are really good about being flexible with school and my extra curriculars." Amelia instantly liked the vivacious blonde and her bright persona. She seemed like someone Amelia could be fast friends with.

"Ooh, what extra curricular activities are you involved in?" Garcia continued, Morgan and Reid also paying close attention. The rest of the group had seemingly returned their attention to their food, which judging from the rate of consumption, was good.

"Well, I like to fence, not very well, but it's always fun to take stress out by stabbing people with an epee." Amelia winked.

"There are three types of swords used in fencing; sabre, foil and epee. Fencing began in Spain and the conquering Spaniards helped to bring the art of fencing all around the world, specifically in Southern Italy. Southern Italy is where modern fencing techniques were created, and were then improved by the French school of fencing. Spanish techniques began to stagnate, until the Italian and French Schools were the dominating styles."

Rather than looking surprised this time, Amelia flashed him a smile, "That's so interesting! I had no idea! You are full of lots of interesting information."

Morgan leaned over to Garcia with a grin and whispered, "He's full of something." More loudly, Morgan nodded to Reid, "You better watch out Reid, if she gets mad at you she might be able to take you out."

Amelia gave Morgan a sidewise look, "Or I could take _you_ out." She took the sting out of her comment with a wink.

'I definitely like you!" Penelope trilled. "I think you need to come on a girls' night with us sometime, maybe next weekend?'

"Well, I'm actually going on a girls' night tonight with my roommate. I'm sure she would love to have extra people join us if you're free. Her motto is "the more the merrier."" Once again, Amelia retreated to the safety of the busy kitchen, not wanting to be privy to the next part of the conversation. "_Clearly his friends are eager to hook him up, so maybe I do have a shot after all_," she thought hopefully.

Penelope clapped, "Excellent! Ladies?"

JJ declined, "We just got back, and I need to spend some time with the family."

"Well, I don't really have a life outside of work, so I'm in." Prentiss jokingly replied.

Morgan popped his head up, eager to throw Reid under the bus, "If it's not exclusive to ladies, I know Reid and I are both free."

Reid whipped his head over to stare at Morgan, "No no, I'm sure the ladies don't want us to come."

Amelia caught the last part of the conversation as she was bringing drink refills to the group. Laughing she answered, "I don't mind, and I know my roommate Melissa won't mind, you seem to be her type Derek. But, I will leave that up to you guys."

"Excellent, it's settled, we will all go out. Rossi, Hotch, will you guys join us as well?" Garcia asked.

"I think I'll leave this to you young people. Try not to give Reid too hard of a time we might need him for another case." Rossi replied.

"I've already made plans with Jack for this evening." Hotch answered Garcia in his usual stoic voice.

"Did you two have your heart set on anywhere specific for tonight's festivities?" Penelope inquired.

"Nope, we are both new to this part of town, so we were just going to wing it."

"Well, I know the best place! Have you heard of _The Heat?_ It's a lounge with a small dance floor set up. It's wonderful there." Even better, the place had intimate booths, and she was certain she could arrange things so a certain genius would be in close proximity to a certain waitress.

Reid realized he was backed into a corner. There was no way he was letting Morgan go without him, not around Amelia. He paused in his thoughts, surprised that he was already so territorial over her. Rolling the idea over in his mind he decided that it felt right. Amelia would be far better off with him, than with the man who went through women faster than he did underwear.

"Do you need a ride Amelia, I know you don't drive but I'm not sure if your roommate has a car?" He surprised himself by asking.

"Well, neither of us have a car. But I don't want to impose on you. We don't mind grabbing a cab." "_At least I don't have to worry about them secretly being crazy people_," she thought to herself.

"Emily and I will pick you up. It's no problem." Penelope jumped in. "The boys can meet us there. That way we can dish on the way there and back."

"Thanks! I really appreciate it." Amelia quickly exchanged contact information with Garcia and finished cleaning up the table. After bringing the bill over she waved the group out the door. The older guy, Rossi, had insisted on paying the entire bill and had left her a really generous tip with a message, "Enjoy some drinks on me."


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds**

**Chapter 5**

Thankful that her shift was over, Amelia headed out the door towards home. _ "I have three hours to make myself gorgeous! Dr. Spencer Reid is all mine!"_ She giggled to herself, happy that she didn't have to make the moves on him in a library.

In record time Amelia and Melissa had made and eaten dinner. Then they focused on the important task at hand.

"Alright, you need to look amazing for your genius cutie, but not too over the top…that would probably intimidate him." Melissa mused out loud. "You did say he was pretty shy, right Amy?"

"Yeah, he is. Oh, and he has a pretty buff friend that you might like. I would definitely go over the top for him." Amelia teased her friend.

After some consideration both girls found suitable outfits. Amelia settled on a short and flirty, halter style dress that was sapphire in color to match her eyes, with matching heels. Melissa went for tight, black pleather pants and a red sequined top that was bare in the back, and some sky high stilettos. The two girls eyed each other over and gave nods of approval.

"Time to go snag us some yummies." Melissa announced as Amelia rolled her eyes and laughed.

Just as the girls finished getting their purses and coats, their buzzer sounded. Amelia went over and pressed the intercom, "Hello?"

"Hello my divine new friends. Super goddess has arrived to take you out for some fun." Giggling Amelia replied that they would be right down.

Amelia and Melissa climbed into the backseat of Penelope's car; Emily was sitting in the front seat.

"We really appreciate you picking us up, especially since we just met this afternoon." Amelia began.

Penelope countered, "I might not be a professional profiler, but I can tell you are a super sweet and nice girl. Just what my boy wonder needs."

Emily just smiled and held her hands up in defeat, "Penelope is a force to be reckoned with when she has a goal in mind."

Melissa was surprisingly, sitting quietly with a huge grin on her face. She leaned between the two front seats, "I think we are all going to become good friends. It seems we have a mutual goal in common, to see our two friends _finally_ meet someone they wouldn't throw out of bed for eating crackers."

At that last statement Emily finally broke out laughing, "Reid doesn't stand a chance." She turned to Amelia with a somewhat serious questioning look, "You are interested in him right? You aren't just playing games?"

Amelia sensed that Emily was doing her profile Jedi tricks, so she took a deep breath and responded with all sincerity, "From what I've seen of him, yes, I really do like him. We've only chatted briefly a couple times, and I'm not one to rush into things. But I would like to get to know him better, a lot better, if he's interested in me."

Emily leaned back with a satisfied look as Penelope butted in, "Emily, I can't believe you'd doubt my new girl like that. You crazy profilers, like the team would shove her in Spencer's face if she wasn't a gem." She turned back to Amelia, "He can't take his eyes, or his brain off of you. Trust me, he's into you. Just be yourself and you'll snap him up in no time."

They spent the rest of the drive chatting about nonsense topics and singing to music on the radio.

Spencer stared into his closet, running through everything he had ever read about how to dress to impress the opposite sex. "_Red is the color of power, action, and overt sexuality; dark red or burgundy are the same characteristics but in a more subdued fashion; blue is the color of stability and trust; pink is fun loving, green is rugged and manly…who am I kidding with that one?_ Spencer quickly narrowed down his choices to burgundy or blue. _Sweater or no sweater? Sweaters are seen as business casual…we are going to a lounge, so perhaps just the button down then._ Spencer decided on the blue, knowing that statistically women preferred stable men most often. _Statistics are good, just keep thinking statistics and you'll get through the night."_ Shaking his head at his inner pep talk, he headed out into his living room and put on a science documentary to pass the time until Morgan arrived.

A few minutes later Morgan pulled into view. Spencer grabbed his jacket and keys and headed down the stairs to meet his friend. On the drive over to the club, Morgan tried to give Reid some pointers. "Look man, just be yourself…but you know, just more open with a few less statistics. She wants to know who you are, not how tall the tallest building in the world is."

"The world's tallest manmade building is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; it's 2,722 ft. The tower opened on January 4, 2010." Spencer said absentmindedly.

"REID! Now, she might find that cute, but she really wants to know you, so do your best to talk about yourself or ask her about herself. Girls like being the centre of your attention." For once, Morgan was actually being really earnest, and his point did make sense. Statistically speaking, women did want to know how well their potential mates could provide for them and care for them. A key part of that was knowing the personality and background of the candidate. Spencer shifted uncomfortably; there was no point in bringing up his mother at this stage.

Surprisingly Morgan kept things light after he made his point. He really wanted things to go well for Reid, and he knew anymore teasing would likely make Reid too nervous to do much more than nod awkwardly or speak in statistics.

The guys pulled into the lounge parking lot before the ladies did, so they went in and got a nice booth that would accommodate all of them. The lounge was a combination of cozy sophistication with the lure of seduction. The lively music added to the promise of fun.

"First round is on me." Morgan said as he went to the bar to order a couple of beers and a round of cosmos for the ladies.

"My chocolate thunder you read my mind," Penelope happily gushed to Derek as she spied the waiting drinks.

Melissa whispered to Amelia, "I thought you said he was single? Are they together?"

Penelope giggled as she overheard Melissa's comment. "We're just friends, but I like to unleash my hormones on that bit of heaven over there since my own sweetie isn't much of a clubber. I don't mind sharing this evening so prowl on, but be warned, he's not a commitment man."

Melissa happily replied, "I just need a man to flirt and dance with tonight. I'm more interested in getting Amelia hooked up!"

Penelope toasted her second new friend, "To that I will toast!"

"Ladies, you're killing me. We're right here." Derek commented pretending to be hurt

Penelope looked over at him mockingly as everyone settled around the table comfortably, "Your point?"

Derek just shook his head, knowing he wouldn't win that battle.

Eager to break the trailing silence, Amelia passed a drink to Emily and took the last for herself. "Thanks for the drink, not my usual, but it's still good."

Spencer looked up at Amelia, "What's your usual drink?"

Melissa rolled her eyes, knowing what was coming from Canadian born friend. American beer had been a longstanding complaint from Amelia.

"I usually stick with a beer, I'm a bit of a lightweight and these types of drinks normally have me under the table in no time."

Spencer was about to offer her his beer when she continued, "I'm not a huge fan of American beer though; I really miss drinking my Alexander Keith's."

"Alexander Keith's is a brewery founded in 1820 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, which makes it one of the oldest commercial breweries in North America. It was founded by Alexander Keith who emigrated from Scotland in 1817. A beer not commonly found outside of Canada." Spencer rattled off without thinking.

Melissa starred at Spencer in astonishment, "How did –"

Emily butted in with a laugh, "Don't ask." She turned to Amelia, "Are you from Canada?"

Amelia blushed, realizing that she was with a bunch of people who profiled other people for a living, "Yes, I'm from Barrie, Ontario. I moved down here several years ago for school. My brother, Jason, lives and works in DC, we have dual citizenship."

"I've never heard of Barrie before, where is it located?" Emily asked.

"Barrie, Ontario is a city located within central Ontario and North of Toronto. It is within the northern part of Greater Golden Horseshoe on the western shore of Lake Simcoe and has a population of 136, 063 people making it the 21st largest census metropolitan area in Canada." As soon as he finished, Reid ducked his head hoping he hadn't scared Amelia off.

Amelia laughed and told him she was honored he knew so much about her hometown.

Melissa couldn't stand it any longer though and addressed Spencer in mock frustration, "Okay, seriously! How do you know all that stuff?"

Spencer quickly told her, "I have an eidetic memory and I like to read, a lot. A while back we worked a case in Canada so I familiarized myself with information about the various cities and towns."

Amelia decided to intervene before Melissa could badger him anymore, "I love reading too! We'll have to compare bookshelves sometime. I go through books pretty fast though since I can read pretty quickly, which has turned out to be a huge bonus in university."

Spencer looked up in happy surprise, "Really? I read at about 20, 000 words a minute. What is your rate?"

Amelia's gave him an astonished look, "Wow! No wonder you have so many degrees! You are so lucky! I've never actually measured it. I know I'm nowhere near your skill level. I just know I read faster than the average person…maybe a 400 page novel in 4 hour period."

"There are approximately 250-300 words on a page in a standard novel, which is the average rate an adult can read at. Using a 400 page novel in 4 hours would give you a rate of about 458 words per minute."

"And on that note, I'm getting another round," Melissa interjected, "Come on Derek, you can help me carry them."

As the pair walked up to the bar Morgan snickered to Melissa, "Thank God for Amelia, better her than us listening to all that trivia."

The group settled in and began to take turns on the dance floor, well except for Spencer, who remained in the booth chatting with Amelia whenever she took a break from dancing. Despite his general unease in bar/club settings, Spencer realized that he was having a really great time.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Sorry for the shortness of the chapter. I'll post a longer one soon! Thanks to everyone who's following the story! It's keeping me motivated. Please R&R.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds**

**Chapter 6**

Amelia cracked an eyelid open and looked at her bedside clock, 11am. She had expected to sleep late since they hadn't gotten home until well after 2am the previous night, but 11am was really late, especially since she had a paper on the fall of the Roman Republic to write. Deciding the best way to tackle the day was to just get moving, she swung her legs out of her comfortable bed and hurried through a scalding shower. After dressing in her favorite lululemon pants and a hoodie she ate a bowl of cheerios and sat down to work. Common sense, and a desire to not look silly in front of Spencer, had kept her drinking to a minimum leaving her clear headed this morning.

Melissa stumbled past Amelia's door to the bathroom. Unfortunately, the cute blonde hadn't had any reservations about her drinking limits and looked a little worse for wear today with her curly blonde hair resembling a bird's nest and makeup smudged under her eyes. Amelia knew that the best thing to do for her friend was to just leave her in peace until she felt better, especially since Melissa also had a paper to write. Amelia focused on her paper and the hours flew by until she realized Spencer was due to arrive in half an hour. Since they had gotten to know each other a bit better last night, Amelia had decided to just invite Spencer over to her place to study so that they wouldn't have to relocate.

She put away her research and pulled out the dreaded chemistry text and brought everything to the kitchen table. She put a pot of coffee on for Spencer, having learned last night that he drank copious amounts of it, and a pot of tea on for herself. A Tupperware container of homemade chocolate chip cookies finished off the study table.

In order to distract herself for a few more minutes, Amelia began to chop up the salad ingredients and the onion and garlic for the spaghetti she was going to make for dinner. The intercom rang and she buzzed Spencer in.

A knock sounded on the door and she let in her mouth watering tutor. He was wearing his usual style of khakis, button down and cardigan with his messenger bag over one shoulder. He gave her an awkward wave and a quick hello.

"Spencer, we flirted all last evening, I think I at least deserve a hug," Amelia teased him as she went over and wrapped her arms around his stiff form. Spencer hadn't been sure if she would still be receptive to him after last night, knowing that alcohol always loosened inhibitions. He was really glad to know that she still seemed to like him. "Come on, I've got everything set up on the kitchen table, and I wanted to thank you again for offering to help me."

"It's really no problem." He smiled at her, enjoying the easy camaraderie they were sharing.

Amelia grabbed a couple mugs, the drinks, cream and sugar and brought it over to the table. After pouring her tea she watched in fascination as he seemed to fill half his cup with sugar. Grimacing at the thought of the super sweet drink she offered him a cookie and then settled down to _really_ concentrate on the homework, flirting could come after.

Spencer was in his element, the chemistry was pretty basic stuff for him, but he was able to spend the whole time concentrating on something that came naturally while getting more comfortable in her company. By the time they finished catching her up and reviewing the coming week's material he was really relaxed and looking forward to dinner.

"Thank you so much for all your help! I have never had such an easy time grasping chemistry before! You are such a natural teacher." Amelia enthused as she shut her book with satisfaction. "I might actually pass this class with your help!"

Spencer waved her comment off, "It's nothing, I really enjoyed helping you."

"Well, as promised, one fabulous dinner coming up! I hope you like spaghetti and Caesar salad."

Spencer assured her that he did, and after his offer to help was brushed aside, he sat back down at the wooden table and began to talk with her while she bustled around getting their meal assembled..

"Why did your brother move down to DC?"

"Hmm?" Amelia quickly glanced up from the noodles she had been measuring into the pot of boiling water and looked back down again, "Jason won a baseball scholarship."

"Then why did you move down here?" Spencer could tell from her body language and her short answers that something traumatic had probably happened to bring her to DC. Her normally open personality became a bit shuttered whenever she spoke about her reasons for moving. He wondered if he should really be asking, but he couldn't resist the lure of learning everything about her.

"My parents died in a car accident halfway through my grade 11 year. They were driving home from a concert in Toronto when a drunk driver hit them during a blizzard. My brother was already here in DC, so I insisted he finish his degree while I finished high school. I lived with close family friends. When he was offered a job at graduation I decided to come down and join him so that we could still be close." Amelia's optimistic personality came through, "I'm really happy I did move here though. I love the area, my school, and my friends." She decided to make things clear for Spencer and added in, "I'm also really happy I met you."

Amelia decided to spare Spencer when she saw him at a loss for words, "Melissa, dinner!"

She turned and grabbed the dishes to set the table when Spencer walked over and stood behind her. "I'm really glad I met you too." She turned and stared into his hazel eyes, and he gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. He was about to say more when Melissa came into the room.

She took one look at the bright faces of the couple and announced, "I'm swamped with this paper. I'll just grab some food and eat it in my room." Melissa quickly fixed herself a plate and headed back to her room so she could text Penelope with an update on the soon-to-be-couple. Things were going exactly as they had planned.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Thanks for the review TENaSeein! I really appreciate it. Reviews help to keep me motivated! I'll try and get another chapter up tomorrow.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds**

**Chapter 7**

The pair quickly separated at Melissa's entrance and busied themselves with serving themselves and eating their first few bites.

"This is really good. Thanks. I don't often have home cooked meals unless I'm visiting one of my team members."

"You guys are really close huh?"

"We're kind of like family. We spend a lot of time with each other, and sometimes have to put our lives in each other's hands. That tends to forge a pretty strong bond." Spencer revealed.

Amelia sighed wistfully. "Having an extended family is great, especially when it's a friend you know you can depend on. Melissa is like that with me. She really helped me settle in and come to terms with my family. My brother is great and we're close, but he's 5 years older than me and lives an hour away."

The two spent the next hour talking about hobbies, interests and their goals. Amelia learned that they shared a passion for books (even if her tastes did extend more to historical texts or trashy romance novels), classical music and had a love of scifi shows. She as even able to impress Spencer with her ability play the flute; she told him how she had considered going into performance music but had decided to study something that would lead to a steadier career. While they were cleaning up the kitchen Reid was impressed to learn that Amelia already had her MA in librarian studies but wanted to complete her MA in history/anthropology so that she could apply for her PhD.

"I just really love books, and I love helping people find information, but I'm not positive it's what I want to do with my whole life. I think I'd be happier working in a University or museum rather than a public library, and for that it would really be better if I had my Ph.D."

Spencer glanced at his watch and saw that it was starting to get late. "I should get going; I don't want to keep you."

"You don't have to leave if you don't want to. Maybe we could watch a movie? It's only 8pm and I don't have class until mid morning tomorrow." Amelia ventured.

A big smile spread across Spencer's face. "I'd like that." They quickly decided on watching an old Star Trek: TNG movie after discovering their shared passion for the show.

They settled on the couch, and Amelia quickly snuggled up to Spencer, "I hope you don't mind."

Spencer paused, but then put his arm around her and pulled her close, "Not at all."

Amelia turned her head towards the television and noticed Spencer's purple and black striped socks, "It seems we also share a love of funky socks." She lifted her foot so he could get a better view of her pink heart patterned socks.

While the opening credits flashed across the screen Amelia started up a debate with Spencer on which of the Star Trek: TNG was the best. Spencer favored "Generations" because it included both Captain Kirk and Captain Picard, and Amelia "First Contact," because it had the Borg and the time travel. They didn't reach a final conclusion but they did enjoy the lively debate.

Towards the end of the movie Spencer lightly brushed his hand down Amelia's cheek. He really wanted to kiss her but was afraid to rush things. Amelia was delighted that he had made that first move, and decided to go a little further by looking up and parting her full lips. Spencer took the hint and leaned over to press his own lips to hers. What started out as an innocent first kiss rapidly heated up.

Spencer couldn't believe himself, he had never felt this before and yet it felt so natural to hold and kiss her. His hands slid through her hair and he held as though she would disappear like smoke in the wind. Finally his brain registered the fact that he needed to breathe, so he loosened his hold and stared into her blue eyes to make sure that she was okay.

Amelia's eyes were glazed over and her lips were slightly swollen. "Wow," she breathed, "I can honestly say I've never felt that before. You're amazing Dr. Spencer Reid."

"I think that's due to my wonderful partner," he whispered back. Without another word, she cuddled in closer and they finished the movie. Spencer let his fingers glide up and down her arm, sending shivers along her skin; he was fascinated by her reaction.

When the movie came to a close he squeezed her tight and said, "It's getting late. You have class tomorrow and I have to go to work. But, if you have some free time this week could I take you out to dinner?"

"I work the evening shift at the café tomorrow, but I'm done work at 7pm on Tuesday. Does that work for you?" Amelia replied hopefully.

"It's a date." He inspected her face to make sure that she was okay with officially calling it a date. If her smile was anything to go by, she was more than okay with it.

Spencer reluctantly let go of her and they both stood and walked to the front door. He shrugged on his jacket and slung his messenger bag over his shoulder.

"Good night," Amelia stood on her tip toes and pulled him in for one more kiss.

"Night."

As soon as Amelia closed the door behind Spencer Melissa came bounding down the hall. "You guys moved WAY faster than Penelope and I were expecting!"

"Melissa! You weren't watching were you?!" Amelia shrieked in embarrassment.

Melissa burst out laughing, "Of course not, but I couldn't help but sneak a peak when I brought my dishes back to the kitchen. You two were so engrossed with each other's lips you didn't even notice me."

Amelia groaned, "You're the worst, but I tell you, he's a fantastic kisser. Any longer and my panties might have spontaneously combusted!" They both giggled and headed back to Melissa's room for some gossip before bed.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Please keep them coming! I apologize for the short chapter, I'm working on a longer one!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds**

**Chapter 8**

Spencer stepped into the bullpen Monday morning with a big smile on his face. Catching sight of Morgan he schooled his features so that his feelings wouldn't be so obvious. As soon as Morgan looked over he knew he shouldn't have bothered, it was obvious Morgan already knew something was up.

"Mm, mm, mmm, look at you pretty boy, gettin' all wild last night." Morgan teased Reid.

Prentiss looked up from her paperwork, "I thought it was weird that I beat you in today. Normally you are the first one here."

"I knew it! I knew that you wouldn't let me down boy wonder!" Penelope bubbled as she bustled up to his desk.

Spencer blushed and held up his hands, "Nothing happened! I just helped her with her homework." He quickly put his bag down and sat at his desk, purposely sliding a big pile of folders in front of his line of view. _I'm going to bury myself in paperwork today._

"Ah ah aah! You can't hide from the all seeing eye baby!" Penelope shot back her face wreathed in smiles.

Spencer rolled his eyes, "_Melissa…I knew she was up to something."_

JJ walked in from the kitchen with a mug of coffee, "So how did the weekend go Spence? Did you ask Amelia out on a date?"

Morgan took one glance at Reid's face and exclaimed, "Good job buddy! A little lip action and a date!"

JJ leaned over Reid's desk and lowered her voice, "Sorry, I didn't mean to exacerbate the teasing."

Reid just waved her off. He knew that between Morgan and Penelope interference and teasing were unavoidable. At least it was all meant in good fun, unlike the teasing he endured in high school. Thankfully, that was the worst of it for the day. Everyone was backlogged in paperwork, and with Hotch breathing down their necks to get it completed, Spencer was able to focus on his work for the most part.

As Reid was finishing his last file for the day he realized he still hadn't gone grocery shopping, and it was already 6pm. _ "I'll just grab something and then go shopping afterwards."_

Morgan leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. He looked over at Reid and Prentiss, "I'm beat, you guys want to grab a bite?"

"Sure, I'm in." Prentiss nodded to Morgan. They both turned and looked at Reid.

"I was just thinking of that." Spencer replied.

"Let's hit Poppy's," Morgan smiled over at Reid, "maybe we can get our favorite waitress."

Since that had been his own plan, Reid said nothing, just grabbed his coat and bag.

The trio walked into Poppy's and immediately spied Amelia serving a couple tables. As the bells chimed signaling new arrivals she looked up and smiled when she caught sight of Spencer.

Amelia finished serving her tables and walked over, "Can I get you guys a table?"

After seating them and taking their order Amelia went back to take care of her other tables. It was too busy to really chat with Spencer, but she was happy just to see him.

Emily watched Amelia looking at Spencer whenever she could, "She's got it bad for you."

Instead of blushing, Reid grinned. "Did you know that the ancient Greeks used bread to wipe their fingers, but that the ancient Chinese were the first to use paper napkins? The Romans were also known to use napkins, but more likely these were made of cloth. One of the earliest recorded dates of table napkins in English is 1384-1385." Emily just shook her head and smiled, while Morgan tossed his napkin at Reid playfully.

Rather than distract Amelia from her job, the trio ate their food, paid the bill and headed their separate ways. Reid was still smiling at the grocery store from the quick kiss Amelia had given him as he headed out the door.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds**

**Chapter 9**

Tuesday passed in a blur for Amelia. She worked the morning shift at Poppy's, during which she served coffee to Hotch (as he insisted she call him), Dave, and Penelope. After a quick bite of lunch she dashed off to class and then fencing practice. At the end of the day she stumbled home worn out, the only thing keeping her going was the promise of her date with Spencer. _Nothing_ was going to keep her from going on that date! Especially since he had warned her he was frequently called away on cases. Amelia stared into her small closet willing something fantastic and perfect to magically appear.

Melissa sauntered up to her door and leaned against the frame, "I think the red polka dot dress with the navy blue sweater would look good." Amelia smiled her thanks and pulled the dress off the hanger.

"Want me to braid your hair Amy?"

"That would be great, thanks!" Amelia responded with a smile. Melissa was great with hair and since Amelia's hair dressing skills ran to pony tails or letting it fall straight, she was grateful for the offer. Just as Melissa finished the intercom rang signaling Spencer's arrival.

"At least he's punctual, that's always a bonus." Melissa observed.

Amelia practically ran over to the intercom and breathlessly hit the button, "I'll be right down Spence!" With a quick goodbye to Melissa, Amelia grabbed her coat and headed out the door.

In the lobby Spencer was waiting, when Amelia appeared a huge grin lit up his face, "You, always look so beautiful! I'm glad I took Rossi's advice and reserved us a table at one of his favorite restaurants. I think he even called ahead to make sure we are given a good table." He led her out the door and to his car, acting the gentleman and opening the car door for her.

"That's so sweet of him. I really like your coworkers. Everyone is so friendly."

"To be honest, they are so happy that I've finally met someone I like that they are actually all going out of their way to help me. Even Hotch pulled me aside today to wish me luck." Spencer shook his head in wry amusement. It actually really made him feel like family when everyone looked out for him, although sometimes it could be too over the top.

"So where are we going for dinner?"Amelia asked as she casually laced her fingers through Spencer's. The action startled Spencer, but he was happy that she wanted the contact as much as he did, so he gently squeezed her hand and answered her question, "La Bella Rosa's. I figured that you would like Italian food since you made spaghetti the other night."

"I have yet to meet a style of food I don't like; although tentacles and food that can look back at me creeps me out." Amelia assured him.

"I'll keep that in mind for future reference." Spencer smiled at Amelia; she was so easy to be with. Normally it took him ages to become comfortable with other people, especially women.

The dinner went really well. The quaint atmosphere and delicious food provided a romantic atmosphere, especially since they had the best table in the place. They were located in a corner table that was perfect for conversation but afforded an excellent view. They lingered over each course and sampled each other's food. Amelia even managed to convince Spencer to try the spinach in her pasta. During their dessert of gelato Spencer entertained Amelia with random blurbs of information about Italian food and Italy in general.

Amelia listened attentively and revealed to Spencer that she wanted to go back to Italy, "I went to Tuscany a few years back on an archaeological excavation with the university, but I didn't really get to see much beyond the small village we were working in. I desperately want to visit Pompeii. Have you done much travelling?"

"Not really. I mostly travel for work. When I do have time off I try to go visit my mother back in Las Vegas." Spencer decided to leave it at that, he didn't want to scare Amelia off with stories about his mother yet. "Do you ever go back home to Canada to visit?"

Amelia shook her head sadly, "There isn't anyone left. I mean, there are a few high school friends, but my godparents moved to Edmonton a few years ago. My godfather is in the army and he was transferred to the base there."

They continued their conversation until they were the last ones left in the restaurant. Amelia gave a small, "oops," as she realized the staff was politely waiting for them to leave. Spencer apologetically paid the bill and escorted Amelia out into the night air. They drove back to her apartment in companionable silence.

When they arrived at Amelia's building she invited him up for coffee. "Melissa is out, so the spy network should be down," she joked. Spencer smiled back and held her hand as they walked up the short flight of stairs to her place. Once inside Amelia fixed their drinks and joined Spencer on the couch. Much to her delight Spencer didn't waste any time, he put an arm around her and bent his head down for a kiss.

"Mmm, I've been dreaming of those lips all day." Amelia groaned as she went back for a longer kiss. She grabbed his arm to steady herself and was delighted to feel the whipcord strength hidden by his dress shirt. When they finally broke apart Spencer noted that Amelia's hair was mussed and her rosy lips were curled up in a smile. They both took their drinks off the coffee table and settled back into the couch.

"So, you've asked me tons of questions about my interests, friends, and family Mr. Profiler. Why don't you tell me about your family? The one outside BAU I mean. You briefly mentioned your mother at dinner, but you didn't give me any details. Does she work?"

Spencer stiffened with his mug at his lips. He coughed and brought the mug back down to rest in his lap. He hadn't really anticipated telling her about his mother quite yet, but figured that fair was far. She had opened up about her family. He hoped that she would be as open minded about that part of his life as she was about everything else. "My father left when I was a little boy, we don't really keep in contact. My mother lives at Bennington Sanatorium in Las Vegas," he took a deep breath, "she's a paranoid schizophrenic. She used to teach 15th century English literature at a university though."

"There's nothing sadder than a parent choosing to leave Spence, but, at least you still have your mother. Do you see her often?" Amelia's bright blue eyes showed the sympathy that she felt.

"I see her when I can, but I write to her every day. I've been telling her about you actually, I hope you don't mind. She said she's really happy that I've met someone."Spencer replied warily.

"That's great! I'm glad that you told her. Maybe someday I can meet her too; she must be a special woman if she raised you." Amelia playfully poked him in the ribs. When Spencer jumped she realized he was ticklish. With an evil grin she deftly placed both mugs on the table and turned to him ready to attack, unfortunately as soon as she did Spencer took the offensive and slid her down so she was lying on the couch with her hands pinned.

"Darn profilers, I'll never be able to surprise you will I?" she pouted at him with a laugh.

"You surprise me all the time." He let go of her hands and was about to sit back up when Amelia took the opportunity to stage her attack. He began to laugh, but was spared any further torture when his phone rang. Amelia let him up so that he could answer.

A serious look crossed his features, "I'll be right in." He quickly stood up and grabbed his jacket. "I'm sorry, I have to go. I'll probably be out of town for a few days, but I'll do my best to be back for Sunday."

Amelia sighed and realized that this would likely become a common situation and that she had better get used to it, having Spencer some of the time was better than not at all. "Don't worry about it, go get the bad guys. Just be safe and come back to me, okay?"

"I'll call or text whenever I can, if you want me too."

"You'd better." Amelia pulled him in for one last hug and kiss and then closed the door behind him. Before she had even returned to the couch Melissa walked in the door.

"Did you and Spencer have a fight already? He looked pretty closed off when I passed him in the hall."

"No, he got called away on a case."

"Well that's a crummy end to a date," Melissa voiced, "Why don't we make some popcorn and watch a chick flick to distract you."

Amelia flashed her a grateful smile, "Sounds like a plan."

* * *

**A/N: Please R&R! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the story so far! I've got some big plans for Amelia and Spencer.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

The next few days passed slowly for Melissa and Spencer. He texted her everyday and called when he could, but the case was pretty demanding. On Sunday afternoon Spencer apologized, saying that he wouldn't be able to make their study session. Amelia brushed off his apology, "Just get the bad guy and come home please." They had grown a lot closer despite their brief phone conversations; it was amazing how much feeling you could pack into a 10 minute call.

After hanging up the phone with Spencer Amelia wandered over to Melissa's room and dropped lethargically onto her bed. Melissa gave her friend a cheerful grin.

"Come on; let's bake a cake to distract you. I bet if we happened to have some extra we could bring it over to Penelope tomorrow and maybe get an update."

"I don't think we would be allowed to do that," Amelia replied dully, "I'm pretty sure the FBI doesn't just let random people with cake into their headquarters."

Melissa could barely contain her mirth, "They do if you are put on the accepted visitors list! Isn't Penelope the best? It was her suggestion. We were on our way back from having coffee last night when she offered."

Grateful to her friend and cheered by her antics, Amelia decided that Penelope deserved a double fudge chocolate cake. The two girls busied themselves in the kitchen, baking and then decorating the cake with pink and yellow flowers until they were both too tired to eat it. They agreed to meet up after their classes the next day and then head over to the BAU.

Amelia fidgeted nervously with the visitors ID badge she clipped to her purple sweater as she stepped out of the elevator and into a large open room filled with desks.

"Careful or you are going to drop the cake," Melissa whispered to Amelia. Both felt intimidated by their surroundings and were unsure of what to do next. Before they could say anything else Penelope hustled into their view.

"Welcome to the bullpen ladies. Follow me to my all-knowing and all-seeing lair."

"We brought you some cake to help cheer you up. We remembered you saying that sometimes the cases really get to you, and we thought the chocolate and sugar could help create some temporary amnesia or at least numbness to what's going on." Amelia held out the cake to Penelope.

"You guys are really the best! Let me get some plates and forks and then we can dig in." Penelope headed off to the kitchen and reappeared a minute later. She gestured for the girls to follow her. When they were seated inside, Amelia and Melissa gazed up at the numerous screens. All the screens had different information on them."

"So how is the case going so far?" Amelia ventured, "Spencer messaged me earlier, but all he said was that they were following a lead."

"Don't you worry Amy," Penelope reassured the nervous brunette, "the team is just fine. This looks like it will be a wrapped up soon. They are already on their way to pick up the UnSub. We should hear something within the next half hour."

"What's an UnSub?" Melissa shot a questioning look at the back of Penelope's head.

"Unknown subject aka the scumbag my sweetness is going to take down."Penelope tossed back over her shoulder as she furiously worked her keyboard. There was so much information popping up on the screens the girls didn't even bother trying to follow it. The three sat in tense silence until Penelope's phone buzzed.

"You've reached the office of unmitigated superiority," Penelope answered.

"Hey mama, we got him. Everything is all good. We should be home tomorrow early afternoon."

Amelia let out a huge breath that she hadn't even realized she had been holding. "How do you do this every day Penelope? I feel sick from just sitting here waiting for the last 30 minutes."

Penelope shot Amelia a sympathetic look, "We love them, but we have to let them do what they are meant to do. It really sucks for those of us who stay behind; it's the price we pay for having the most awesome people in the world on this team."

Melissa gave Amelia's hand a squeeze. Amelia came to the jolting reality that Spencer wasn't just her slightly awkward, genius boyfriend; he was also someone that had to go into potentially dangerous situations to help back up his family. She sat quietly for a couple minutes debating if she could handle the demands of Spencer's job, she'd already lost her parents. She didn't want to face the possibility of losing Spencer too. There really wasn't much to consider though, she wanted to be with Spencer no matter what, even if she had only known him a week or so.

Amelia's mouth dropped open as she exclaimed, "Holy crap!"

Penelope swiveled around in her seat at the sudden burst of sound as Melissa asked what was wrong.

"I just thought of Spencer as my boyfriend!"

The other two girls broke down into gales of laughter. "I'm glad you finally figured that out sweetie," Penelope managed to choke out in between giggles, "I'll be sure to pass that along when he gets back."

Amelia blushed, but didn't bother to argue. Melissa stood up, "We won't keep you any longer Penelope. We really appreciate you letting us stop by. I'll talk to you later okay?"

"No problem! Anytime. Thanks again for the cake."

The two girls gathered their things and headed back out to the elevator. Amelia had a big smile on her face and a distinct bounce to her step. "I really appreciate you setting this up for me Mel."

"No problem sweetie."


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: I'm really excited to see so many people following my story! Please do me a huge favour and review! I'd like to know how I'm doing and how people are liking the progression of the story so far. Thanks!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds**

**Chapter 11**

The girls headed back out into the evening air and hopped on a bus. Amelia had just settled into her room to finish her paper when her cell phone began to ring. She glanced down and saw Spencer's name on the display. Before answering it, she headed over to her bed to get comfortable.

"Hey baby. I heard you guys got the bad guy." Amelia greeted him as she was fluffing one of her many oversized pillows so she could lean back on it.

"Yeah, we did," Spencer paused and cleared his throat, "I really miss you. Would it be alright if I stop by your place tomorrow when I get back?"

"Of course it's alright. I'm working the evening shift, but I'm home all afternoon. Is everything okay Spencer? You sound a little off." Amelia sat up straight, worry shone on her face.

"I'm fine. I just…I spoke with Penelope a few minutes ago." The sound of Spencer clearing his throat echoed in the phone.

Amelia rolled her eyes and slouched back down, "_geeze, Penelope sure doesn't waste any time!_ _I'll bet the whole team knows how I feel now."_

"Well, according to Emily, the team figured it out at the restaurant the first time they met you. Penelope was just making sure that I knew you considered me your boyfriend." Spencer replied warily.

Amelia gasped, "Crap! I didn't just say that out loud, did I?" Amelia buried her face in her hands, grateful that Spencer couldn't see her beet red face.

"Yeah, you did." Spencer couldn't figure out if Amelia was mad, sad, or embarrassed so he decided to keep his answer short.

"Ugh, this was not how I wanted this to go. I feel like I'm 15 again and awkwardly stumbling my way through my first relationship." Amelia took a breath, "I really like you Spence, and yes, I do think of you as my boyfriend. I really hope that's how you feel about me. We don't have to discuss this over the phone though; it can wait till you get back tomorrow."

Spencer's face lit up and he sat down on the bed in his motel room. The contents of his Go Bag already assembled so that he would be ready to go home first thing in the morning. "Ah, no. I don't mind talking about this on the phone. Statistically speaking it's proven that being open with others early on in relationships in regards to feelings and thoughts create a stronger foundation and therefore longer lasting connection." He stopped to collect his thoughts before continuing on, "Besides, this gives me the opportunity to tell you how I feel."

Amelia held her breath waiting for him to continue. She knew that she was acting silly, but she couldn't help it. Despite the short amount of time she had known him, Amelia could feel that Spencer was _the one_. If he wasn't, then she'd never trust her instincts again.

"I really care about you too and I am honored to be your boyfriend. The thought of you back home is what kept me going this week. I really love spending time with you." The warmth and sincerity in his voice echoed through the phone line.

Amelia wasn't too sure where to take the conversation from there. She decided to leave the declarations at that and continue them tomorrow. "You know how to make a girl feel special. What time will you be at my place do you think? I can have some lunch ready for you, maybe even a little doggy bag with dinner since I know you won't have anything in your kitchen." She laughed, "Seriously, the amount of take-out food you guys eat will give you a heart attack one day." They chatted for a few more minutes until Spencer told her that he had to go meet the team for dinner.

"I'll see you tomorrow baby." Amelia told him and released the small pillow she had absentmindedly been clutching.

"You can count on it." Spencer hit the end button on his cell and made his way to the lobby to meet up with everyone before they headed out to the restaurant.

"I am _never_ going to figure these things out, no matter how many times you show me JJ." Spencer said with disgust as he put down his chopsticks. JJ just laughed and asked a waiter to bring over a fork.

Morgan looked over with a smile, "Hey kid, maybe your girl can teach you. Isn't her mom from China? I'll bet she cooks lots of Chinese food, so you should learn."

Morgan's comment managed to draw the attention of the group from their discussion of what they were going to do for the next couple days. Hotch had generously given them the next two days off since they had been working around the clock for over a week.

Rossi looked up from his lemon chicken and glanced at Morgan, "Granted you can tell from her facial features that she is of mixed heritage, but how did you know it was her mother who is from China?"

Morgan took a sip of his drink, "It's all in who you know."

A horrified look crossed over Spencer's face, "You didn't get Penelope to create a file on Amelia did you?"

Hotch sent an irritated look at Morgan, "You shouldn't be asking Penelope to misuse government resources like that."

Morgan just laughed and waved his hand, "Nah nah, it was nothing like that. Penelope was talking to Melissa, and just happened to relay some information to me. They've decided to unite in their plans to hook you and Melissa up."

Spencer gave Morgan a smug look of superiority, "I think I've got that covered on my own, thanks."

The entire team looked at Spencer in mild surprise. "Looks like the kid is growing up," Rossi smirked.

Morgan leaned back in his chair mockingly, "Yeah, he might even be ready to have the training wheels taken off his bike."

Spencer grinned back, "Did you know that training wheels were invented- ," He was cut off from saying anything further when the team groaned and tossed their fortune cookies at him.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Sorry for the short chapter, I'll make sure the next one is longer!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds (don't I wish!)**

**Chapter 12**

As soon as the plane taxied to a stop Spencer had his bag in hand and was out the hatch. Rossi turned with a sardonic head shake to Hotch, "Think the kid has somewhere to go?"

Spencer made it over to Amelia's apartment in record time. After she buzzed him in, he bounded up the steps to her door. He took a deep breath and knocked.

"SPENCE!" Amelia didn't even give him a chance to say a word back before she wrapped him in a hug and began kissing him.

Melissa walked into the living room took one look at her friend and started giggling, "Let the poor man in the door Amy!"

Amelia let Spencer go but refused to be embarrassed. She grabbed his hand and led him to the kitchen table where she had laid out some sandwich ingredients and homemade soup. "Aren't you staying for lunch Melissa?" Amelia inquired.

"Nope, I've got to stop at the library before my next class. Then I'm heading over to Penelope's for dinner with her, Kevin and Derek."

Amelia rolled her eyes, "Have fun, and try to keep your meddling to a minimum." Melissa just winked and headed out the door.

"I swear they are like dogs with a bone." Amelia groaned with exasperation as she flopped into one of the chairs.

"You get used to it eventually." Spencer answered back, he was too happy with how things were going to let their mutual friends' interference bother him. "I know you are working tonight, but I can make up for our missed tutoring session tomorrow. I'm free all day."

"That would be great, thank you. I'm working the morning shift before class, but I will be home all evening after 4pm. We can make an evening of it with dinner and a movie if you like." Amelia responded.

"Sounds like a plan."

The two finished off their lunch and cleaned up while chatting back and forth about nothing in particular. They eventually settled on the couch with Amelia's head on Spencer's lap again as some classical music played in the background. Spencer idly twirled a strand of her hair oh his finger while he enjoyed the comfortable silence.

"Spence, what's it like being out on a case." Amelia asked a little hesitantly.

Spencer thought about it for a moment before he replied, "It differs case to case really, but there is always an underlying sense of determination and pressure. We have to be single mindedly committed to catching the UnSub and unraveling their motive. For me, it just feels right. I'm glad that I can put my brain to use helping people out here in the real world, even if it can be dangerous occasionally. When I was growing up I never thought about doing anything else. At one point, after a really bad case I thought about going into research or teaching in a University, but then I realized that I was still where I needed to be." Spencer's mind flashed back to Tobias Henkel and the Reaper and he took a deep breath, "Things can get bad, but we're a family and we help each other through as much as we can."

Amelia turned that over in her mind for a minute before asking another question, "I know that you guys can work some really horrific cases, how do you separate that from your home life? I mean, how do you stay cheerful when you know how awful the world can be? I don't mean to pry, but I'm just trying to figure this all out…figure you out. I want to know how I can be there for you."

"I asked Hotch a similar question once. He told me that I the only way to really manage was to focus on your relationships 100% when you are home, and to focus on the case 100% when you are in the field. I'm still new to all this, so I'm trying to do the best I can." He leaned down for a kiss, "All I need is to come home and know your smiling face will be here for me." Spencer glanced at his watch, "I hate break this up, but you are going to be late if we don't leave now. Come on, I'll drop you off at work."

Amelia grimaced and headed to her bedroom to change.


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds**

**Chapter 13**

The next couple of months passed quickly for Amelia. Ever since she had met Spencer her life had taken on a rosy glow. With regular tutoring sessions from Spencer her chemistry grade had steadily improved. He had also proven to be a tremendous help in her research, Spencer's ability to read so quickly and then instantly recall the information was an incredible bonus. The only low points were when he had to leave on a case, which was often enough that it made her treasure the times they did get to spend together.

The BAU team had pretty much adopted Amelia and Melissa into their family. Penelope and Melissa seemed to have decided that they were long lost sisters and spent inordinate amounts of time with each other. It was just as well, because when Spencer was home they spent most of their time together at Spencer's apartment. Amelia began cooking in Spencer's apartment and smiled when she noticed he had purchased several new cooking apparatuses, including a wok after she had complained about his bachelor kitchen one night a couple weeks prior.

Christmas was just around the corner and Amelia was growing nervous. She and Spencer were meeting each other's family over the holidays. Her brother, Jason, was coming over for Christmas and then they were heading out to Las Vegas to spend some time with Spencer's mother. They had decided to keep New Year's Eve for themselves, and were planning on spending it in Vegas, since Amelia had never been before.

"Melissa, are you coming?" Amelia yelled down the hallway from the living room. "We're going to miss the bus!"

"Don't get your panties in a twist. I forgot to mention that Emily, JJ, and Penelope are coming shopping too. Penelope is picking us up in 10 minutes."

Amelia rolled her eyes with good humor. Really, she should have assumed they were all coming to the mall when she mentioned that she needed to do some Christmas shopping for Spencer. The curiosity of the team knew no bounds. "_Well, perhaps they can at least give me some hints", _she thought. Amelia had a pretty good idea of what to get Spencer. He spent so much time studying that she wanted to get him something fun, so she was thinking of getting him the special edition Star Wars Death Star Lego kit. It was a silly gift, but he needed something silly, and they could work on it together when they had time.

A few moments later Melissa sauntered down the hallway. "Penelope just texted me, she's waiting downstairs."

The two girls got their coats and purses and headed down the stairs and outside to Penelope's waiting car. Once they reached the busy mall they headed inside to meet up with Emily and JJ.

"Thanks for inviting us, I've been trying to find the time to go shopping for Will and Henry, but I never seem to get the chance," JJ greeted Amelia and Melissa.

"No problem. I've been having the same trouble finding time to go shopping for Spencer and I don't even have the excuse of being away for work." Amelia joked back.

"Are you guys coming to Dave's place for dinner afterwards?" Emily questioned as she glared at a passing shopper who had accidentally whacked her with a bag.

"That was the plan as far as I know." Amelia answered back with a smile. "Alright, let's go battle the crowds and get this done." The girls went out and did their shopping, each finding presents for everyone on the team and their own individual families. Amelia decided on the Lego set for Spencer when she found out that JJ had given him the Millennium Falcon the previous year. Shortly before the mall closed they were sitting around drinking coffee and tea. Amelia waited for everyone to become occupied in conversations before she looked at her cup and blushed, she cleared her throat and looked up at JJ, "So…JJ."

"Yes?" JJ paused in her perusal of Henry's gifts and looked up at Amelia.

Amelia just let the words spill out of her mouth, her face flaming at the same time, "I know you and Spencer are really close friends. I was wondering if you could help me pick out something special for him."

JJ smiled, "Sure, no problem. What did you have in mind?"

Amelia leaned closer and lowered her voice so that the others wouldn't hear, "SomethingfromVictoria'sSeccret…"she mumbled out.

"Sorry? I didn't catch that." JJ shot a questioning look at Amelia.

With a sigh of resignation and a glance at the now avidly interested group, Amelia repeated, "Something from Victoria's Secret."

"Ooooh! Boy genius is going to have a VERY Merry Christmas!" Penelope cheered. Emily couldn't say anything since her hand was covering her face and her shoulders were shaking suspiciously.

Melissa shot Amelia a hurt look, "I could have helped you."

"I know, but JJ knows him better, and I want this to be for him…and…"Amelia trailed off and then gave up, "Why don't we all go."

JJ winked at Amelia and smiled, "Maybe I'll get something extra special for Will too."

"Oooh, this one, this one is definitely a keeper!" Penelope enthused. Amelia glanced dubiously at the micro mini "Mrs. Claus" outfit that Penelope was holding.

"Ummm, I don't know if I'd be brave enough to wear than Pen. It's cute, but a bit over the…is that a _crotchless_ thong?!" Amelia blurted out covering her face. "_This is awful!" _ She thought to herself. Penelope and Melissa just grinned and nodded happily. "I _really_ don't think that is quite Spencer's ideal of sexy," Amelia tried to argue.

"Pfft, that boy doesn't know what sexy is yet. He's still new to this whole relationship business. It's up to you to educate him!" Penelope burst out laughing, "That will be a switch! Boy Wonder being taught something new by one of us." All Amelia could do was send a pleading look at Melissa, who held her hands up as if to say, "What do you want me to do?"

Emily and JJ giggled in the back. "I think we better help her or else she's going to leave with nothing," JJ murmured to Emily.

"Divide and conquer." Emily replied with a thoughtful tilt to her head. "_Alright kid, you owe me one. I'm going to find something to blow your socks off…ugh, I can't believe I just thought that." _ Emily winced slightly at the thought; she thought of Reid as her brother and really didn't want to think of him in that light. With one last glance at Melissa and Penelope trying to persuade Amelia that the Mrs. Claus outfit was a winner, JJ and Emily went hunting.

"Ah ha! I got it!" JJ happily exclaimed. She reached into the rack and pulled out Amelia's size. She headed back over to the exasperated Amelia who was now looking at a red pleather…_something_. There really wasn't much to the outfit other than some ribbons and small triangles of fabric.

Holding back a giggle, JJ produced the dark purple and silver threaded set. "Purple is Spence's favorite color and I think that this style would really suit you." She said with an encouraging voice.

"Oh, I like that one." Emily said as she walked up holding a royal blue satin negligee.

Melissa looked up hopefully, "This one?" She asked holding up the red bits of fabric.

Emily coughed, "I don't think that would be to Spencer's taste, I was referring to the purple outfit that JJ is holding."

Penelope and Melissa pouted for a moment before returning the outrageous outfit to the rack.

Amelia gratefully grabbed the purple outfit, "This is definitely more what I had in mind!" She turned and saw the blue negligee in Emily's hands, "Oh, I like that one too…maybe I'll just get both."

"Merry Christmas AND Happy New Year!" Melissa joked to Penelope. Emily and JJ couldn't help but laugh at the antics of the two irrepressible women.

Thankful for the assistance, but glad that it was over, Amelia headed over to the checkout while the rest of the group decided to wait outside the store. While standing in line Amelia paused as she rifled through her purse looking for her wallet. She could have sworn she felt someone watching her. Amelia looked around and saw nothing unusual, just the steady hum of holiday shoppers. She glanced at her friends outside the store and waved back at Penelope who had a humungous smile on her face. It was probably all in her head, too much caffeine from the latte she had had earlier. _"You better stick with tea next time round or else you are going to become really paranoid,"_ she thought to herself as she moved up to the sales woman ready to cash her out.

Once Amelia rejoined the group, they gathered all their bags and headed out to the parking lot. Amelia didn't give the weird feeling another thought.

Penelope turned up the long drive towards Dave's mansion.

"I _still_ can't believe that Dave lives here," Amelia said to Penelope.

"It pays to write about crazy people," Penelope smirked back, "although, I still can't believe how many people like to read about that icky stuff. I'll take a pass on that, thanks."

Melissa and Amelia shared a mirthful look; they still found it hysterical that someone who hated anything remotely gory worked in the BAU. Although, to be honest, Amelia never really asked any details about Spencer's cases; it was enough for her that he came home after each one.

"Come on ladies, let's go relieve the men of their boredom and get the party started," Penelope chirped.

Melissa gave Amelia an appraising grin, "Yeah, maybe Amy here will get the party started in Spencer's pants." Penelope could barely contain her laughter as they walked up the front walk.

"Guys!" Amelia screeched out in exasperation, "Please, truce!"

Melissa gave her best friend an exaggerated sigh, "Fine."

Just as Dave opened the door, Emily and JJ pulled up the driveway, so the trio said a quick hello to Dave and then made their way inside so that the doorway was cleared for the others.

Once inside, Penelope and Melissa bee lined over to where Derek and Kevin were standing; as soon as the ladies reached the men they promptly started to chat and laugh. Amelia didn't even want to contemplate what they were talking about, and decided to head over to find Spencer instead. She found him in the library reading a book by Tolstoy.

"Hey sweetie. Good book?" Amelia greeted Spencer as she leaned down over the back of the couch to get a kiss, he helpfully tilted his head up.

"Yes, it's actually quite fascinating. I've always found the similarities in Tolstoy's _War and Peace_ to Victor Hugo's _Les Miserables_ fascinating. You can really identify how Hugo's work and Tolstoy's inner turmoil collide in this text." Spencer trailed off as he realized that his angle of view offered a delightful glimpse down, or rather up, Amelia's blouse. Amelia waited for Spencer to continue his train of thought, when she caught him ogling her. She gave him an amused look, but to her surprise, rather than look embarrassed Spencer reached up and helped her to slide down onto the immense black leather couch beside him. He let his hands slide through her hair as he firmly held her head in his hands.

"You are beautiful and amazing. I just wanted you to know that." Spencer told her right before his lips captured hers. A few breathless minutes later the slightly mussed couple went back out to the festively decorated living room and rejoined the rest of the cheerful crowd. Other than a few knowing smirks (mostly from Derek and company), no one remarked on the couple's delayed appearance. Rossi was hosting the dinner as a Christmas get together before they all went their separate ways for the holidays.

"Amelia, would you mind giving me a hand in the kitchen?" Dave approached her, "I think I underestimated how much work all the food prep required."

"Sure, no problem, I'll be right there." Amelia responded as she broke away from her conversation with Hotch and his ex-sister-in-law, Jessica. "I'll go grab the tin of baked goods I brought too."

Morgan popped his head around from where he was standing at the fireplace, "You brought cookies?" He gave her a cajoling look as he loped over, "Tell me that you brought some for your favorite profiler."

"Why yes, I did give Spencer a tin. But don't worry Derek, I brought some for you too. There's a tin for everyone. Melissa and I made a bunch of different Christmas treats." Amelia teased back as she headed towards the modern industrial sized kitchen.

Ever since Amelia had discovered the team's enjoyment of all baked goods she frequently sent containers of different goodies with Spencer when they went away on cases. Derek had once told her that it helped to remind him of home.

Amelia set about making herself useful in the kitchen, helping Dave chop vegetables and making some of the side dishes.

"Thanks for the assist." Dave looked relaxed in his role of chef, although Amelia had discovered that very little ever rattled the long time veteran of the BAU.

"My pleasure. Your kitchen is truly a dream to cook it. One day I'll escape my tiny apartment sized kitchenette." Amelia replied wistfully as she thought back to the days when she would help her mom in the kitchen or be out on the lake snow mobiling with her father and brother.

"I've heard Reid has a pretty decent sized kitchen, even if he never uses it." Dave smoothly slid in.

Amelia chuckled, "Why Dave, are you fishing for details on my relationship with Spencer? For your information, I do use his kitchen."

"Me? Fishing for information? Never." Dave bantered back, "I was merely confirming my suspicions that Reid's sudden lunch improvements weren't his doing, but rather yours. If you ever feel the need for a bigger kitchen, you are welcome to mine. I don't think it gets used enough."

Amelia grinned, "You caught me. I was so horrified the first time I went to his place after he returned from a case and found nothing but peanut butter and granola bars that I make a point of stopping by when he says he's on his way home so that I can stock his fridge with some home cooked meals. You guys are going to all have clogged arteries at the rate you eat take out." She paused, "I might take you up on the offer of the kitchen some time though, it would certainly be a lot easier to get large batches of cooking and baking done in this kitchen. I always send my brother home with leftovers too since he's generally a big fan of hot dogs." Amelia shook her head in mock disgust, "Honestly, I'm not trying to be sexist or anything, but most of the men I've met seriously suck at making edible, healthy food."

"I get the sense that you are a big fan of taking care of those you love, a quality that is hard to find and one to be treasured in a partner. I'm glad that Reid has found someone who takes joy in caring for others, he needs that. I'll tell you what; I'll give you a spare key. Feel free to pop in whenever. Maybe you could even leave me some doggy bags," Dave gave Amelia a crinkly eyed smile.

Shaking her head in amusement, Amelia replied with warmth in her voice, "Of course."

The rest of the party passed with cheerily. Everyone exchanged a few gifts since most would be heading out of town to visit relatives not that they were officially off duty until New Year's Day night. Amelia was touched when everyone gave both her and Melissa gifts as well. She was glad that Spencer had warned her of his team's generosity so that she was prepared with the goodie boxes for everyone.

The party was wrapping up when Amelia told Spencer that he didn't need to stop by her place to pick up her overnight bag, "Penelope picked us up, so I just brought it with me."

Spencer turned towards Melissa, "Would you still like a ride home like we originally planned?"

Melissa waved him off, "Nah, it's okay lover boy. I think I'm going to hang out for a bit longer and catch a ride back with Penelope. Dave promised to break out some of the _really_ good wine. I'll see you both after New Year's though…have a _very_ Merry Christmas Spencer!" Melissa's last remark caused Amelia to blush and the other ladies to break out into giggles.

After giving Amelia a puzzled, look Spencer replied to Melissa, "Uh, thank you. Merry Christmas to you too," which sent the ladies into another round of glee. Amelia quickly grabbed Spencer's hand and said a quick goodbye to everyone before any details were leaked; she dragged him over to his car.

Spencer quirked his eyebrow at her, "Should I ask what that was about?"

"No," Amelia answered back firmly. "You'll find out soon enough." Spencer gave her a surreptitious examination and decided to leave well enough alone, he was learning that there were some things you didn't press women on.

* * *

**A/N: So what do you guys think so far? Are you enjoying the Spencer/Amelia fluff?**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Sorry for the short chapter, my baby and I are both sick, but I thought something short was better than nothing at all. Thanks for the reviews, please keep them coming! I'm working on a long chapter to make up for this one.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds**

* * *

The drive back to Spencer's apartment was relatively short since the traffic was light, and Amelia was able to sneak all her purchases inside without Spencer seeing the Victoria's Secret bag. She brought everything into his bedroom and then shooed him out so she could wrap the gifts. While he was waiting, Spencer decided to review a case file he had brought home. The BAU had been asked to give a geographical profile on an UnSub who had killed a woman up the coast a bit. There was something off about the case that had been bothering Spencer ever since he had looked at it, so he had brought it home. Before he could become too engrossed in the case, Amelia reappeared in her pajamas, which consisted of loose grey and red striped cotton bottoms and red tank top, and settled onto the couch beside him. Spencer quickly closed the file and put it away.

"You can finish that up if you want to Spence, I don't mind." Amelia waved towards the novel she had placed on the coffee table, indicating that she was happy to read while she waited.

"No, no. I've actually already completed the geographical profile that the local police had requested. There was just something familiar about the MO and I wanted to review the information again." Spencer frowned with a slightly frustrated look of concentration on his face.

"I thought you had an eidetic memory? Can't you instantly recall the information?" Amelia questioned.

"Yes, that's true, which makes me think that this is something I just overheard or didn't directly read. It might have just been a glance at a TV or news article, or even an overhead telephone conversation." Spencer replied slowly, as though he was going through every news cast, article, and phone conversation in his head.

Abruptly he shook his head as if to clear out the vast amount of information it contained, "Never mind that now. It's the night before Christmas Eve and I'm going to spend it with you. What would you like to do?"

Smiling coyly, Amelia answered back, "Well, I happened to have borrowed the deluxe edition of Star Wars from a friend in school, and I thought that you might like to watch that."

A huge grin spread across Spencer's face, "That would be great!" Spencer got up to put on flannel pants and a t-shirt while Amelia made a big bowl of popcorn to share.

The couple settled onto the couch and turned the movie on. While Amelia adored Star Trek, she had never been able to quite get into Star Wars the way that Spencer was, so it wasn't long before she started to get a little distracted. She repositioned herself on the couch so that her head was in Spencer's lap. She began to slowly draw circles on his thigh with her fingers. Spencer let out a quiet sound of surprise and darted his eyes from the television to Amelia's fingers. A few moments later Amelia grew braver and shifted her head so that she was looking up at Spence who was still looking at the television, but with the corners of his mouth lifted up. She began to trail her fingers along his t-shirt clad stomach and bare arms, when she felt Spencer's breathing pattern grow more rapid. Spencer still directed his gaze towards the movie but had given up actually watching, he was curious to see how far Amelia would go. With an evil grin, Amelia slid her hands under his shirt and felt the taut planes of his stomach; she teasingly traced his skin just under the waistband of his pants. Before she could go any further, Spencer put his hand on hers.

"I'm guessing that the movie can wait till tomorrow?" He asked Amelia with heat in his eyes.

"Mmm, why yes Dr. Reid, I do believe the movie can wait after all." Amelia splayed her fingers and continued her explorations.

Spencer let out a groan and brought his hand to the hem of her shirt, "Two can play this game Amy, I'm a fast learner."


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Soooo, baby had a good nap today and after a much needed caffeine dose I felt inspired to write despite my inability to breathe properly. I hope you enjoy this chapter! Please read and review (good or bad), it makes my day so much happier and encourages me to write faster! Thanks!**

**Warning! Minor reference to violent content.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds**

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Amelia blinked open her eyes and gazed at Spencer's sleeping face. Last night had been incredible. For a guy who had had next to no experience when they met he was pretty talented. Not that she was an expert by any means, her parents' tragic death and her subsequent move to the USA had done on a number on her social life. She had only begun to date casually again a few years back. On account of this, the couple had only started exploring their sexuality recently, but were doing their best to make up for lost time.

With a satisfied smile on her face Amelia let her fingers lightly dance down Spencer's bicep. He might be slender, but his time in the BAU had honed a very defined strength in his body. Before she could progress any further Spencer's eyelids cracked open and a sleepy smile stretched across his face.

"Good morning," Amelia greeted him and leaned in to give Spencer a quick kiss, "I'd love to stay in bed with you this morning, but Jason is due to arrive at my place in a couple hours so we should probably get a move on."

Spencer stretched and answered back, "Of course." The two got out of bed and Amelia headed towards the bathroom as Spencer straightened the bed sheets.

"I'd invite you in to shower with me, but I remember what happened last time." She tossed back over her shoulder with a daring grin, "maybe we could try that again in Vegas though."

Spencer stared speechless at the closed door for a moment before muttering, "That woman is going to bring all my brain cells to a screeching halt one of these days." He shook his head to clear it and got dressed before heading down the hallway. After checking the clock Spencer decided they had enough time for a quick breakfast and decided to impress Amelia with scrambled eggs and English muffins, knowing that that was one of her favorite combinations.

"Ooh, thanks baby! It smells delicious!" Amelia exclaimed as she walked into the kitchen, "I'm starving." They quickly ate and cleaned up before heading over to Amelia's apartment. Melissa had already left early in the morning for the holidays; she was headed back to Maine to visit with her family.

"Can you put the presents under the tree Spence?" Amelia asked as she started to pull out pots and pans, "I want to get some food started." Spencer nodded and began to lay out the brightly wrapped presents before he wandered over to the breakfast bar.

"Would you like any help?" He inquired.

"Nope, I think I have it covered. Why don't you read for a bit or something before my brother arrives." At the mention of her brother's impending arrival, Spencer's nerves got the better of him. "_What if he doesn't think I'm good enough for Amelia? What if her demands she break up with me? What if…"_

"Spencer!" Amelia snapped her fingers in front of his face, "He's going to love you, so stop worrying!" Spencer tapped his fingers on the counter and shifted his feet uneasily. Rather than say anything he decided to give the case file another look over. _"There's something here…I know it."_ He puzzled over documents inside, normally he didn't have such a difficult time making connections, which made him suspect this would be a pretty obscure connection.

Thirty minutes later Spencer suddenly exclaimed, "Ah, ha! That's it!"causing Amelia to look up from the potatoes she had been cubing.

"Did you figure out the connection?" Amelia asked as she paused to take a sip of water.

"Yes, I just realized that this victim had been abducted late at night as she was making her way home from work and that a victim two years prior had also been abducted close to midnight on her way home from school. Both were strangled and then left in a state park several days after the adbduction. I didn't connect them originally because the previous victim had been killed 2 years ago in Bridgeport, Connecticut and this victim is from Baltimore. I remember seeing the news report on television when we were finishing up a case in Hartford, Connecticut. At the time it had seemed like a one off case so we were never called in, but now I wonder." Spencer went back into thought as Amelia grimaced; it always made her so sad to hear about victims. It was always such a senseless waste of life.

Before Spencer could go any further in his work the buzzer rang.

"That must be Jason," Amelia told Spencer. Without saying anything Spencer put away his file and focused on making a good impression.

Amelia buzzed her brother in and then threw open the door before he even had a chance to knock, "Jason!" She squealed as her brother gathered her into a big hug.

"How ya doing squirt?" Jason asked as he slung his bag down from his shoulder and onto the floor. "Where's this guy you can't stop talking about, he better be treating you right." He joked.

Spencer awkwardly stood up and made his way over and nodded. "Hi, uh, I'm Dr. Reid, I mean, Spencer. Please, call me Spencer," he blurted out. Amelia giggled as Jason gave Spencer the "big brother" once over.

"Doctor huh? Amelia mentioned you have several degrees. That's probably a good thing; one of her pet peeves is conversing with brainless twits." Jason commented with a twinkle in his eye, he liked Spencer on the spot. He could tell Spencer was trying to make a good impression and decided to take it easy on the guy. He had to be pretty special for Amelia to be as serious as she was about him.

They made their way into the living room and sat down; Jason in the armchair with Spencer and Amelia on the couch. _"Sitting in the armchair gives him the feeling of being in control, he's probably getting ready to interrogate me,"_ Spencer thought to himself slightly panicked.

"So, Spencer, what do you do for a living? Amelia was pretty vague about your job. She said you worked in the FBI, but didn't mention what division." Jason asked politely. Jason had assumed that Spencer worked in one of the forensic labs or analyst units given Spencer's academic qualifications.

"I work in the Behavioral Analysis Unit as a field agent. Officially, I'm Supervisory Special Agent Dr. Reid, but I find that it's a bit of a mouthful. I generally specialize in the geographical and linguistic profiling, but I take active part in all aspects. We really work as a team." Spencer explained, he loved his job and was more than happy to elaborate on what he did. At least this was easier than those awful recruiting seminars the Bureau always sent him on.

Amelia grinned at her brother, "Close your mouth Jason, you look like a baboon. This is why I didn't go into detail. I knew you wouldn't believe me."

For a change, Jason's usually cheerful demeanor took on a more serious look, "Amy, you do know these guys are the ones who go after the really big dirtbags? The scum of the cess pool so to speak. It can be pretty dangerous work, are you really alright with that?"

Spencer was about to reply when Amelia put her hand on his knee to stop him, "Spencer has been upfront about everything with me, I understand the demands and risks of his jobs, but I care about him and wouldn't change who he is." She smiled up at Spencer, giving his knee a little squeeze.

Spencer felt pole axed, he hadn't realized the depth of her feelings, nor had he ever really considered how her parents' death might make her feel about the dangers of his job. He wryly thought that for having such a big brain, he was remarkably single minded when it came to Amelia.

Spencer wasn't the only one who was surprised by Amelia's speech. Jason drew in his breath and shot Spencer an admiring look, "I guess my baby sister grew up without me noticing and found herself a great partner. Just remember, you might be FBI, but I'll still kick your butt if you hurt her."

"And just when I started to wonder when my idiot brother gained some maturity, you reestablished your idiocy with that threat," Amelia interjected as she rolled her eyes in exasperation, "and here I thought we were all adults."

At a loss for words in this new situation, Spencer used his most reassuring voice, "I would never intentionally hurt Amy. She means everything to me."

"Just so we're clear," Jason nodded but silently thought to himself, _"It's the unintentional hurt that worries me_, t_he kind of hurt that happens when you don't make it back to my little sister."_ Jason shook off his gloomy thought and drolly demanded, "Now, when's dinner Amy? I'm starving! All I ate today was a hot dog so that I'd have a big enough appetite to do your cooking justice."

Amelia giggled, "You're such an ass sometimes. I'll go finish cooking. Why don't you go put your stuff in Melissa's room and play some poker with Spencer?" She paused, and gave Jason an innocent look, "he's not really good and is trying to learn all the rules before we go to Vegas."

"Sure. Sounds like fun. I'll be right back." Jason smirked and headed down the hallway as Spencer sent a questioning look at Amelia.

"Pulverize him sweetie. He needs to know you aren't a push over and can hold your own." She lowered her voice and continued with a Cheshire cat grin on her face, "besides I might have forgotten to mention that you are from Vegas and have an eidetic memory."

Ten rounds of cards later Amelia was laughing so hard she could barely breathe. Spencer had really gotten into the spirit of the prank and had lured Jason into a false sense of security. He had even let Jason try to "educate" him on some of the finer rules of poker, before declaring, "I think I've got it figured out now." Spencer then proceeded on completely cleaning Jason out, twice, and in record time.

Jason laughed and threw down his cards, "I know when I've been outclassed. Just wait, one of these days I'll get you on a rink for a little shinny."

"I assume you are referring to shinny hockey, more commonly called pick-up hockey in the States. An informal game of hockey, which is believed to have been the pre-cursor to ice hockey. The name is actually derived from the Scottish game _shinty _of which, _shinny_ is derived."

Jason shook his head in amused exasperation, "Yeah, hockey."

"Unfortunately, I don't really know how to ice skate. I mean theoretically I've read all the techniques, but I haven't actually tried it in practice." Spencer replied with a shrug.

Amelia butted in, "Really? You've never gone skating? How come?"

Spencer grinned at her, "I'm from Vegas, remember?"

"So that's why you were able to hustle me so easily!" Jason laughed, "Well, Amy used to help teach the little kids how to skate if you ever want to learn."

Spencer was saved from replying when Amelia threw a dinner roll over the breakfast bar at her brother. "You lost the game, you clean up the cards. Spence, come help me set the table."

A few minutes later they sat down to a delicious turkey and shared an easy light hearted conversation. Spencer was surprised by how much he liked Jason; he warmed up to him very quickly and truly enjoyed discussing the local political climate with him. Jason did his best to treat Spencer like a part of the family, he guessed that Spencer might one day actually _be_ part of the family, judging how Amelia lit up every time she looked at him.

After dinner they settled down to watch Christmas Vacation, a movie Amelia insisted that she watched every year in order to get into the holiday spirit. When the movie came to an end they all made their way to bed.

Spencer rolled over and gathered Amelia into his arms, "You know I love you, right?" He whispered.

Amelia placed a soft kiss on his lips before she responded, "I love you too Spencer."


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: I have had a crazy week! How about you? I've been battling the flu and so has my poor little one. It's been awful, and we're both still recovering. On the bright side, I got my new laptop, so I've been having fun learning that. I'm going from a 6 year old laptop with windows xp to windows 8 and a touchscreen laptop. Crazy!**

**Anyway, I've been working hard on this story and I've written a significant portion of it. I'm just editing it, so you'll have to bear with me. I've even come up with a couple ideas for a possible Morgan/OC storyline as well as a possible sequel for this story. Thoughts? **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds**

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Amelia woke up and stared at the ceiling for a moment. Everything in her world was so _right_. Things had never gone this well for her before, and she couldn't imagine how they could get better. With a happy twinkle in her eye she turned her head to find Spencer watching her with a tender expression.

"Merry Christmas," Spencer said to Amelia as he tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear.

"Merry Christmas! Ooh, I have a gift for you to open before we head out to the living room with my brother." Amelia scrambled out of bed and went to her closet to retrieve a medium sized wrapped box. She handed the gift to Spencer and held her breath as he unwrapped it.

"I really hope you like it," she nervously bit her lip.

"I'm sure I'll…love it, wow…" Spencer paused as he finished opening the box. His normally hyperactive brain screeched to a halt until all he could think of was the purple lingerie gracing Amelia's body.

Amelia grinned and gave Spencer a lingering kiss, "I thought something a little extra special for Vegas could really make the trip memorable." Spencer quickly swallowed and was about to reply when Jason banged on their door and yelled, "Present time! Living room in 5 minutes. No holiday hanky panky, get decent!"

Amelia giggled and sent Spencer an apologetic look, "Sorry, I swear he's 5 years old sometimes."

Spencer nodded distractedly, gave the lingerie one last look and then put the lid back on the box before he made his way to the living room with Amelia.

The morning passed swiftly as they exchanged gifts and ate a large breakfast. Spencer was glad he had taken JJ's advice and given Amelia a simple, but elegant charm bracelet. He had placed a book charm on it to symbolize their first meeting.

"This way we can add to it whenever something important happens," he explained. Jason snickered at the cheesiness, but as JJ had promised, Amelia was touched that he had put so much thought into it.

Before they knew it, it was time to head over to JJ's house where she was hosting Christmas dinner for everyone who remained in town. Jason reluctantly put down the Death Star Lego piece he was examining and gave a Amelia a fake hurt look, "How come you didn't get _me_ the Death Star kit? I thought I was your favorite brother."

"You're my only brother, thank goodness. I didn't get it for you because _you_ desperately needed a new wok and frying pan." Amelia retorted with sarcasm. "Now get a move on, we have to leave in 5 minutes or else we're going to be late."

Jason eyed Amelia with superiority, "Yes, we should go. I have _so many_ childhood stories about you to share with Spencer and his friends." Amelia flounced off to her room; she knew that saying anything further would only encourage her older brother. Wisely, Spencer retreated to the background and remained a spectator to their sibling taunting.

Once they had arrived at JJ's, Amelia quickly introduced everyone to her brother, and was a bit taken aback when he seemed to hit it off with Hotch and Rossi. Amelia was watching everyone in the room when Spencer came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.

"You look content."

"I am. I never dreamed that I would find so many people who would welcome me in like this. I owe it all to you Spence. You have such a wonderful family, and I am so grateful that you shared them with me. I'm really looking forward to meeting your mom too." Spencer gave her a quick squeeze and then glanced down at the little boy tugging on his pant leg.

"Uncle Spencer, could we do magic tricks now?" Henry asked.

Spencer let go of Amelia and bent down, "Of course we can little man. Why don't you grab Jack and we can put a show on for Amelia, she hasn't seen how well you and Jack are doing yet."

Henry's cries of, "Yeaaaa!" echoed across the room as he ran over to Jack.

Amelia spied Jason watching her and Spencer with a grin on his face. He excused himself from Hotch and Rossi and made his way over to her and said with uncharacteristic seriousness. "I'm really glad that things are working out for you so well Amy. I was a little worried about you. You seemed to just be burying yourself in school work. I was starting to wonder if you were using your studies as a shield from life."

Amelia ducked her head at her brother's astuteness, "I was, but when I ran into Spencer, _literally_," she snorted, "I realized that I had a real chance to find some happiness and I discovered that I couldn't pass it by, especially since it became apparent that Spencer needed that same happiness in his life."

Her brother gathered her into a quick hug, "I'm happy for you. He seems like a really nice guy," he shook his head in mock disappointment, "I guess he won't need that butt kicking in the future after all."

Amelia simply pointed towards Hotch and Will as she giggled, "I'd really like to see you try big brother, in this case, I think you're outnumbered and you haven't even met Derek yet." Shooting glances at the well built men, Jason simply nodded his agreement with a twinkle in his eye.

Amelia gave her brother one last smile before she headed over to where Spencer and the two little boys had set up and were impatiently waiting. She sat down in front of them and clapped and cheered at their improvement in the magic tricks Spencer had been teaching them. Spencer decided to show off a bit for Amelia and had the boys join her on the floor while he set up the materials for his film canister rocket.

Jason and Hotch watched with interest in the background. "Last time I saw him do this trick he managed to shoot the thing halfway across the bullpen," Hotch quietly told Jason with a glimmer of amusement coloring his features.

Spencer made everyone close their eyes while he filled the canister with his "special" ingredients. When they opened their eyes they saw the canister starting to foam at the lid, which was resting upside down on the table. The black canister launched itself in a high arc across the room and managed to hit Rossi square in the forehead. Spencer cast him an apologetic wave while the rest of the room erupted into laughter.

Dinner was announced and the merry group headed over to the dining room, still teasing Rossi about being the target. The meal was enjoyed by everyone and the two young boys managed to have a quick food fight with their peas before their parents noticed.

The only rough point in the evening was when Spencer pulled Hotch aside after dinner and had a hurried whispered conversation. Amelia guessed what it was about when Hotch's light-hearted face took on his stoic expression. JJ noticed Amelia's distraction when they were discussing Spencer's reaction to his Christmas gift, she followed Amelia's stare and sighed. She gestured to Amelia that she would be one moment and headed over to Hotch and Spencer.

"Guys, its Christmas. I'm sure this can wait until we are back in the office, and if it can't then send the details over to the other team. We are on vacation and we all need it. Now, both of you go back and socialize." JJ ordered firmly. Both men gave her a sheepish grin and separated. The rest of the evening continued without incident as Christmas was celebrated with full enthusiasm. Everyone began to head home after Jack and Henry succumbed to exhaustion and fell asleep on the couch.

Spencer, Amelia and Jason arrived back at the apartment. Jason bid them a quick good night and headed to his room; he was heading home and back to work right after he dropped the couple off at the airport. Amelia and Spencer headed to Amelia's room where they both double checked their suitcases and collapsed into bed exhausted.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: I really appreciate everyone who has favourited or is following my story. A special thank you to those who have reviewed my story! Please continue the feedback, I really appreciate it!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds**

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Amelia stepped out of the airport's doors and smiled at the brightness of the sun. "I still can't get used to how warm it is here in the States during the middle of winter." She gestured to the fuscia colored North Face jacket she wore, "this is what I wear in the fall and spring back home, now it's what I wear in the middle of winter!" She paused and then continued wistfully, "To be honest, sometimes I miss my thermal underwear and down filled coat."

"Well, maybe next year we can go to Edmonton and visit your godparents," Spencer tentatively offered. Amelia gave a quick nod and slipped her hand into Spencer's.

Spencer quickly steered Amelia towards the car rental section and absentmindedly rattled off, "While most American cities do not become as cold as Canadian cities do, Quantico has had a record low of -11 degrees Fahrenheit in February, 1996. Even by your standards that is fairly cold." Spencer filled out the paperwork and thanked the attendant. After locating their rental he helped her put her suitcase into the trunk and held the car door for her. They had decided to stay in a hotel close to Spencer's mother for the first few days and then switch to a hotel on the Las Vegas strip for the remainder of their time. They had nothing definite planned for their vacation, Amelia wanted to just go with the flow and Spencer had already seen everything enough times that he was happy to go at Amelia's pace.

A short while later they arrived at the modest hotel that would be their base for the first leg of their trip. After checking in and dropping off their luggage Amelia asked, "Would you like to go visit your mother now?"

Smiling at her thoughtfulness Spencer replied, "I told her we would be in to visit tomorrow, guidelines recommend that you have at least one day of rest for every time zone crossed. We crossed three time zones, but we did so backwards which is typically easier to acclimate too, so I thought one day would suffice for you. Did you know "jet lag" is the common name for desynchronosis and is a physiological condition which results from the alterations to the body's circadian rhythms resulting from rapid long-distance transmeridian travel? The name jet lag was coined because the most common cause of this condition is travel on a jet airplane? Propeller plane travel didn't encounter this problem nearly as commonly because the aircraft was much slower and had a shorter range."

"So how do you manage when you go on cases all across the country? You don't get any time to acclimate, or do you?" Amelia jokingly accused.

"There's a reason why we all drink a lot of coffee. Caffeine is the only widely accessible, non-medicinal aid available." Spencer replied with humor as Amelia threw her hands up in mock surrender.

"Well, in that case, why don't we take advantage of the few hours left of the daylight and go visit some of your childhood haunts?"

Spencer shifted his feet uncomfortably, "I'd really rather not. Most of the area has bad memories for me."

Amelia nodded her understanding, "Then why don't we check out the hotel pool and then go out for dinner?" Spencer gave a slight groan but agreed to go. He wasn't a huge fan of swimming, but Amelia was, and he felt bad about not wanting to take her sightseeing; so he grabbed his suit and quickly changed.

Spencer idly watched Amelia cleanly breaking through the water as she swam a few lengths in the small pool. He was lounging at the side and dangling his feet in the water, enjoying the way Amelia's swim suit showed off all her curves, when she swam over to him and wiped the water off her face.

Mischievously Amelia stood on her tip toes to sneak a kiss from Spencer; just as he leaned down she grabbed his arms and knocked him into the pool. "Got you!" she whooped.

"I can't believe I fell for that again." Spencer shook his head in disbelief as he righted himself in the pool.

"Again?" Amelia questioned Spencer with a frown, "We've never been in a pool together before."

Spencer coughed, mumbled, and then cleared his throat in obvious discomfort, "Well, it wasn't exactly the same. A few, um, years ago, I was, uh, on a case. I was protecting a stalking victim and she decided to go, ah, swimming. I was _trying _to convince her to get _out_ of the pool. When I reached down to help her out, she pulled me in and…k-" he abruptly cut off.

Amelia arched an eyebrow at Spencer, "And what?"

Spencer glanced at Amelia quickly and then ducked his head before he hurriedly finished, "and then she kissed me."

Rather than get upset Amelia started laughing as she put her arms around Spencer's waist, "You poor thing, attacked in a pool." She tilted her head up to inspect him closely with a huge gamin smile across her face, "Well, it doesn't look like she left any lasting scars, so I suppose I'll just have to let this one go." Amelia continued in a more serious tone, "Look, Spence. I know you had a life before me, and I'm not the jealous type. So don't feel embarrassed sharing things with me. I'd rather know than be kept in the dark. It's as simple as this, do you love her?"

"No!" Spencer quickly assured her.

"Then no big deal." She gave him a little splash and ducked back under the water only to pop up behind him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and gave him a hug before she kicked his legs out from under him and dunked him back under the water.

Spencer popped back up and sputtered before throwing his hands up in surrender. Morgan had warned him to keep all details about any previous girl, not that there were many, away from Amelia. Morgan had told him that it always caused a rift, or at the very least a jealous feeling in the current girlfriend. It had made logical sense to him; nobody liked being compared to others. But he was secretly glad that Morgan was so frequently wrong about what Amelia would or wouldn't do or think. He liked knowing that Amelia wasn't like every other girl out there, especially the ones that Morgan frequently hooked up with.

Still chuckling at Spencer's distress, Amelia grabbed his hand and led him over to the hot tub. They soaked in companionable silence for a little while and then went back to their room to clean up for dinner.

The first visit with Spencer's mom went very smoothly. Diana was having a good day and was fairly lucid for the entire meeting. Amelia really enjoyed getting to know Spencer's mother and hearing all her stories about Spencer as a young boy. Diana was happy to see her beloved son so in love, it was actually a relief. She sometimes wondered if her disease and the traumatic events from his childhood had created an unbreakable wall in her son's ability to develop romantic relationships.

Spencer was visibly relaxed the second day they visited and didn't even become nervous when his mother slipped into one of her delusions. He gazed admiringly at Amelia as she pretended to be a student in Diana's class asking questions about the Canterbury Tales. Luckily, Amelia was fairly knowledgeable about the text and the history of this period due to her studies so they were able to enjoy a lively debate.

Spencer held Amelia's hand in his as they made their way out to their rental car. "I really love you." He whispered to her as he stopped her on the walkway. He gently brushed his hand on her cheek. "I'm so glad that you were able to meet my mother." _"And that she didn't cause you to run from the room and from me,"_ he silently finished in his mind.

"My pleasure Spence. Unfortunately, I've learned the hard way to treasure the family you have, no matter what," she paused hesitating, "I still wish you would go see your father. He might not be the best father figure in the world, but he is family."

Spencer firmly shook his head, "He chose to not be part of our family and has never made the effort to really contact me beyond a Christmas card, even after Riley's murder was resolved." Spencer had related the story of Riley Jenkins to Amelia when they had initially booked their trip because she had been inquiring about his father then. Amelia sighed sadly and nodded her acceptance to Spencer's wishes, she wouldn't force him. Nothing good ever came of forcing someone to do something they didn't want, especially when the scars ran so deep.

Amelia shook off the gloom of Spencer's refusal and instead chose to think about their next few days.

"I know it's super tacky, but could we go on the Hoover Dam tour? Ever since I saw Vegas Vacation I've always wanted to see it, although, I bet you could give me a more informative tour than the guide." She teased Spencer.

Spencer quirked his lips up and started to recite what he knew of the dam as they got into the car, "The Hoover Dam, once known as Boulder Dam, was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression. It is constructed using a concrete arch-gravity design…" Amelia just shook her head and listened as they drove towards the landmark.

"This is wonderful Spencer! Look at the views! I'm so glad we ended up choosing this hotel." After careful consideration they had chosen to stay at a boutique hotel attached to one of the more well known hotels. It was located in the middle of the strip, but did not contain a casino on the main floor. Amelia wasn't a huge fan of continuous, in-your-face gambling, clouds of smoke, and non-stop beeping and flashing lights, so this hotel had turned out to be a dream.

After some debate they had decided to see a Cirque du Soleil show, "It's Canadian in origin and I never got to see it back home!" Amelia had declared. They also went to a Gordon Ramsey restaurant, which was Amelia's favorite celebrity chef. As a surprise, Amelia had also gotten tickets to see a magic show and a touring Star Wars costume exhibit, knowing that Spencer was a big fan.

On their last night in Las Vegas, which also happened to be New Years Eve, Amelia decided to break out the purple outfit that she had given Spencer for Christmas. After counting down the New Year in front of the spectacular fountain so often featured in movies, they headed back to their room.

Amelia had pre-ordered room service to deliver some champagne to their room to set the mood. She gave a surprised Spencer a quick kiss and headed to the bathroom to change. In nervous anticipation, Spencer debated whether to wait for Amelia standing or sitting in bed. As the bathroom door opened, Spencer scrambled onto the bed and dropped his jaw at the breathtaking sight. He swallowed and held his arms open in invitation. Amelia blushed at the apparent desire on Spencer's face and forced herself to walk slowly over to him before lying down and leaning back into his arms. The embarrassment from the shopping expedition was worth the look on Spencer's face, Amelia decided eagerly.

Spencer gathered her hair to one side of her head and kissed the smooth patch of skin just under her ear. His hot breath across her skin made Amelia's stomach quiver in anticipation. He slowly trailed his kisses down the length of her neck and to her shoulder. Amelia felt like her skin was on fire.

Abruptly, she turned over and placed her palms flat on Spencer's chest as she kneeled so she was straddling him. He gave her a surprised look.

"This is my Christmas present for you," Amelia voiced seductively to Spencer's unasked question. She shifted her hands from his chest and laced her fingers through his as she gave him a melting kiss. She placed hot kisses up and down his chest, driving him wild, and finally made her way lower. Spencer groaned in anticipation, he had never felt so _alive_ before.

Amelia secretly smiled to herself; she loved making Spencer's carefully controlled emotions go wild. It gave her a strong sense of empowerment that he trusted her so much. She spent the rest of the night ensuring that Spencer wouldn't regret relinquishing all control to her. By the time she finished with him he was so sated that he couldn't have told her which way was up to save his life.


	18. Chapter 18

****Oops! Sorry! I accidentally posted the wrong chapter...here's the correct one. Thanks Xavier16 for pointing it out!****

**A/N: Look at me go! Another chapter up, enjoy the lovely fluffiness! This is for booklover1598, thanks for all the reviews, I really appreciate them!**

**Disclaimer: I really REALLY wish I owned Criminal Minds, but sadly I don't. LOL, if I did, I'd definitely try to write in a pool party scene...who's with me? All those gorgeous men, yum!**

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The next morning they sluggishly untangled their limbs and glanced around the destruction of their room. Amelia giggled at Spencer's sheepish and slightly dumfounded look. "I never go halfway on presents," she said as she gently rubbed her nose to his.

"I'm glad," Spencer managed to reply. Amelia's stomach gave a loud growl, which caused them both to laugh. Spencer observed that he had better feed her before they caught their flight home, so they finished their packing and went to breakfast.

The afterglow that Amelia was basking in was brought to an abrupt end the evening they returned from Las Vegas.

Spencer's cell phone rang as they were finishing dinner and sharing their Christmas adventures with Melissa.

Spencer looked at the number and hit the "talk" button, "Hi Hotch…yes…I'll be right in." After ending the brief phone call Spencer gave Amelia an apologetic look, "I'm sorry, there is an emergency and the team has been called in. I'll give you more details when I can." He bent down and gave her a quick kiss before shrugging on his coat and heading out the door.

Amelia sighed at his hasty exit and began to clean up the remnants of dinner, "Well, I guess I can get a head start on my readings for next term."

Melissa gave Amelia a disgruntled look, "Nope. We are going to fix ourselves some chocolate pudding and sit on the couch and gossip. We haven't had time to catch up in ages. You can do your readings tomorrow." With a relieved air, Amelia nodded and gave her friend a hug. She dreaded the thought of what constituted an _emergency_ in Spencer's line of work.

Spencer stepped into the bullpen and was informed by JJ that they would be leaving in 5 minutes and that they would be briefed in the air. Knowing that the case must be an extremely urgent one, Spencer hurriedly grabbed his go bag and headed back to the elevator with the rest of the team.

Penelope stood off to the side as the elevator doors closed. "Come back safe my babies," she called after them.

Once they were all settled and the plane had taken off JJ explained the case, "We are heading to Scranton, PA. The local police have asked for our assistance because they have had 3 deaths in the last week and believe that more are coming. The UnSub started out by sending threatening letters to various members of the community. In the letters, he stated what their supposed crime was and then killed them shortly after. No one has seen him. A letter was submitted to the local newspaper, claiming that the previous and upcoming murders are just a prelude to the grand finale. Luckily, the newspaper turned the letter in to the police instead of printing it.

Morgan looked at the pictures in the files, "The initial victim has several shallow wounds, and a gunshot wound in the shoulder and one in the head. This is sloppy, hesitant, and progressive. It appears like the UnSub started out by trying to stab or cut the victim, but didn't have the stomach for it. He then progressed to shooting, but didn't have very good aim. These gunshot wounds were inflicted at fairly close range too, it's possible that this is the first time ever shooting a gun."

Hotch nodded, "Yes, the UnSub is likely young, probably in his twenties. He's started off tentative, but as you can see," the team flipped through the photos, "he's progressing very rapidly and is gaining confidence in his abilities." The following pictures showed that the victims were all killed by single gunshot wounds to the head.

Reid flipped through the statements and CSI reports, "It appears as though this is a spree killer. He is most likely a loner with low self esteem and is targeting people who he feels has wronged him in some way. It's very likely that he is working a menial job and is under the supervision of someone who frequently belittles him. Typically there is no "cooling off" period in between spree kills and it is very probable that his "grand finale" will have a high number of possible victims."

Hotch nodded, "We should begin by checking out any group events that are being held in the near future and see if they have any connections to the deceased."

The team continued to discuss the case and divide up jobs so that they wouldn't waste any time when they landed.

Three days later the team was no closer to finding the UnSub. Despite their belief that he had no prior planning or experience in actual violence they were running out of leads and the body count was increasing.

"As unfortunate as it is, every time the UnSub kills we gain a clearer picture of who this guy is." Rossi explained to the police captain in an attempt to calm him down.

The Major began to purple in color before he yelled, "This is MY city! We have 5 dead and almost no leads! I thought you guys were supposed to be the experts. I have a media frenzy from all those damn letters this lunatic is sending them and the police chief is breathing down my neck demanding that something be done. The public is starting to panic, and you are telling me that the increasing body count is HELPFUL?!" Spittle flew out of his mouth and Rossi gave a worried frown; the captain was grossly overweight and likely had high blood pressure, he hoped that the man didn't have a heart attack from the stress.

"I understand your dilemma, but we are doing our best and should have something soon. Our technical analyst is currently doing background checks and cross references on all the victims. We will find this guy, I assure you." Rossi soothed in his gravelly voice. Hotch looked up from the conference room where he was listening to a report from Garcia via Morgan's cell phone. Rossi gave him a brief nod to signal that he had handled the captain. Hotch gave a slight frown and refocused on Garcia's findings.

Rossi reentered the room as Morgan exclaimed, "Son of a bitch! He's been here the whole time."

"Get the rest of the team and the captain in here, now," Hotch ordered Morgan. Morgan hurried out the door with an angry expression on his face. Rossi perched himself on a ledge at the side of the room as the rest of the team assembled.

"We've been able to find our UnSub. He works as a custodian in a company that has contracts for the police station and the three other businesses where the victims worked or frequented. He's been able to elude us so far because he has been silently keeping tabs on our progress. Garcia has been able to pinpoint his location through his cell phone. He is currently located at the Hilton Hotel where a police fundraiser is being held in 3 hours. Let's go." Hotch said with determination.

The entire station went into a flurry of action and raced to the hotel. They quickly established a perimeter and sent in the SWAT team. The captain stood beside Reid as Hotch and Morgan made their way into the building. "How does this usually end?" he questioned the young genius.

Reid glanced at the older man before responding, "A spree killer typically suicides or attempts to go out through suicide-by-cop. This type of UnSub is rarely taken into custody."

The captain gave Reid a grim smile, although Reid suspected that he was secretly pleased with his answer. The captain had taken the killing spree very personally. Several tense moments' later gunfire was heard and Morgan's voice echoed through Reid's radio. "Area is secured, suspect is dead. We have an agent down, we need medics."

Reid ran over to the entrance of the building to find out what had happened when he saw the medics helping Hotch make his way over to the ambulance. A large red stain covered Hotch's arm as a medic used pressure to stem the bleeding.

"It's just a graze." Hotch assured Reid. Reid nodded and glanced back towards the lobby of the hotel where the paramedics were finishing covering up the body of the UnSub. Reid sighed, he was ready to go back home to Amelia.

Morgan caught Reid's expression and sauntered over, "Hey lover boy, ready to head home? We should be able to have this wrapped up and be in the air by tomorrow evening. Maybe we can head over to Poppy's for dinner when we get back."

Before Reid could reply Prentiss and Rossi made their way over and agreed to the plan. The team began to pack up and headed over to the hospital to pick up Hotch who was being treated for his wound.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: Woo! Finally feeling better from that awful cold. We also got some snow today! Yea! So here is another chapter to celebrate. Please R&R. Cheers!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds**

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Amelia looked up for what felt like the 100th time that evening as the door chimed signaling another new arrival to the café. Spencer had called late the night before saying that they would be home today and would come for dinner. It was almost 8:30pm and Amelia was starting to wonder when they would arrive. She had already set up a table for them in their usual spot and had a few different appetizers on order so that they could eat something as soon as they arrived.

A huge smile broke across her face and she quickly worked her way over to the entrance as Spencer and the rest of the team members walked through the door. "Spencer!" She reached up and pulled his head down for an urgent kiss, heedless of the rest of the team. Fortunately, the rest of the restaurant was pretty empty since it was a Tuesday evening. The team cracked up at her antics and showed themselves to their table, leaving the distracted couple to their reunion.

A red-faced Spencer and a glowing Amelia made their way over a moment later. "I'm so glad you guys are all safe, I was following the news reports and it sounded awful. I hope your arm is better soon Hotch." Amelia greeted everyone.

"Thanks. It wasn't exactly how I wanted to finish my Christmas vacation, but at least we caught the guy." Hotch replied with a bit of a saddened air.

Rossi glanced at his friend with a frown but didn't say anything further. The group settled down to the task of looking over their menus and ordering.

Amelia desperately wanted Spencer to stay with her that evening, but she didn't get off work until 10:30pm and had an early morning class, so when the group finished their meal she bid him goodbye with the promise of stopping by the BAU the next afternoon.

Just as she was about to flip the "Open" sign to "Closed" a handsome, dark haired man walked through the door.

"Am I too late to grab a coffee Miss?" He politely inquired.

Amelia shrugged, "I still have some on. It's a little stale though. I can make a new pot if you don't mind waiting a few minutes."

"No, no. I'll take the old stuff. I'm in a hurry and I'm not particular. Thanks for not turning me away." The man replied with practiced ease.

With a forced smile Amelia handed him the cup of coffee, "No charge. Have a good night."

"Thanks. You too." The man returned with a slight tip of his head. He turned and walked out the door, and he didn't look back. As the door shut behind him, Amelia wasted no time in locking it. The customer had been perfectly polite, but she felt like there was something off about him. Once again she was grateful that the owner of the café insisted that at least two people close at night and preferably three if they were all female. Amelia finished balancing the till and tidying up the front part of the café. She poked her head into the back and saw that Ethan had finished cleaning and prepping the kitchen for the following day. They both grabbed their bags and headed over to the bus stop after locking up behind them. Ethan lived on the same bus route as Amelia, so they often rode home together when they closed the café.

Amelia called good night to Ethan as he exited the bus and made his way home. She had 4 more stops till the bus reached her apartment. Once she exited the bus the creepy feeling from the café stole over her again and she hurried into her building, glad to have reached bright lights and locked doors again.

After getting ready for bed Amelia snuggled into her bed and sent Spencer a text, _"made it home safe. Love you. See you tomorrow."_

Spencer was quick with his return message, "_Sweet dreams. Xoxo."_

Amelia's classes seemed to drag on forever that day. She was in her last term for her MA and was pushing herself hard to do well. Normally, she truly enjoyed listening to the lectures and participating in the debates, but today she just wanted to leave. The weird feeling that she had experienced the night before had disappeared in the cool sunshine as she hurried to and from different lecture halls.

Amelia dashed out of her last lecture of the day and headed towards the metro station that would take her to the FBI headquarters. She stood anxiously shifting her weight from foot to foot on the subway platform and cast a nervous look over her shoulder, the weird feeling was back. Determinedly Amelia shook off her paranoia and stepped onto the subway car; since it was only mid-afternoon there was plenty of seating. She pulled out her IPod and turned on one of her playlists while she sat back and counted the stops.

Amelia greeted the security guard in the lobby of the FBI while he signed her in and gave her a visitor's badge. While riding the elevator to the BAU floor she drummed her fingers on her thigh and surreptitiously sized everyone in it up. The other people mostly looked like workers in the FBI. After reaching the BAU she exited the elevator and breathed a sigh of relief scolding herself for being so anxious, until she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Ah!" Amelia shrieked out.

Several heads turned towards her as Spencer stepped in front of her and muttered an apology. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

Amelia sucked in some air, "No no. _I'm_ sorry. I don't know what's gotten into me today. I've had this persistent creepy feeling all day…well, actually since last night and I can't seem to shake it. I almost called you last night to come and stay with me, but it was so late that I didn't want to wake you."

Spencer cast a worried frown at her, "I wouldn't have minded. Are you sure you're okay? What did this sensation feel like?"

"Well, at first it kind of felt like someone watching me too intently… Hey, wait a second. Don't go all profiler on me! I'm just having one of those days. It's nothing." She forced a smile to her face, "Really, don't worry about me. I've been watching the news too much lately and it's freaking me out. I blame it on you," she winked. "If you hadn't been working that awful case I would never have turned on the news, it's far too depressing to watch most of the time." Amelia mocked Spencer.

Spencer smiled, "Did you know that the "feeling of being watched" is actually hard wired into our brains? It's a signal that causes us to either be on our guard or ready for social interaction. We often feel as though we are being watched even if someone happens to be looking at something else entirely, but within our vicinity. Our brain translates any possible threat or social interaction into that feeling so that we are always prepared to react. Perhaps you interpreted an innocent glance and then became hyperaware of everyone around you, thus accelerating the release of adrenaline in your system and preparing you for a "fight or flight" reaction. When the adrenaline leaves your system you will likely feel a great sense of fatigue as your body readjusts to the normal levels of hormones."

"Why thank you for that edifying clarification Dr. Reid," Amelia joked. Secretly she was happy that Spencer had been able to come up with such a logical explanation. His reasoning sounded a lot better than her just feeling crazy.

Spencer cleared his throat, "There is another remedy for what you are feeling."

Amelia quirked her eyebrow at him, "Oh?"

"Um yes, actually, you could come and stay at my place tonight. It's proven that there is safety in numbers." Spencer finished with a hopeful smile.

"That would be lovely."

Spencer was still in the middle of finishing up some of his paperwork so after Amelia had greeted everyone she settled into a nearby vacant table and pulled out her laptop so that she could work without disturbing anyone on the team.

About an hour later Hotch poked his head out of his office, "Reid, could I speak to you for a moment?"

Spencer looked up, "Sure," and headed up the stairs to Hotch's office.

"I want you to go over everything that you know about that case you were telling me about before."

Spencer had assumed that that was why Hotch wanted to speak with him, so he had brought the file upstairs as well. He slid the file across the desk to Hotch.

"I was completing the geographical profile that the Baltimore police had requested for a murder victim. While I was looking over the reports I noticed that the MO seemed to be familiar, I finally realized that it was very similar to a case I heard about on a TV news report a couple years ago taking place in Bridgeport, Connecticut while we were on a case in Hartford. I didn't know if they were linked for certain because the media didn't release all the details about the case, but I had Penelope look further into the Bridgeport case and found that the UnSub used the exact same methods."

Hotch steeled his features and nodded to Spencer, "Continue."

"The UnSub apparently waits till the victim is alone late at night, usually around midnight, and then grabs the victim. The two victims identified so far were both in their mid twenties, but one was of Middle Eastern descent and the other was Caucasian. From what I can tell, the UnSub holds these women for several days, during which he tortures and rapes them before strangling them and dumping their bodies in the woods. He doesn't go to any lengths to conceal the bodies, other than placing them about a hundred feet off the base of a hiking trail."

"So what you're saying is that there are two victims we know of for sure right now, but that there are probably more out there and more about to be abducted." Hotch stated as he rubbed his face with a hand.

Spencer paused a moment, "Most likely, but we won't know his timeline until Penelope finishes searching through all the reports in the area that fit our profile."

Hotch picked up his phone and rang JJ. "Call our contact at the Baltimore police department. I want to go to Baltimore and investigate the case Reid was consulting on, let them know that it is now a Federal investigation. " He cast a quick glance at Spencer, "You might as well head home now. It's likely that we will be heading out of town again in the next few days."

"Are you sure? I can continue to work on the profile…"Spencer started.

"No. Go home, get some rest. We will go over this tomorrow at our 10am briefing, we won't be able to help anyone if we are all burnt out."

"Alright." Spencer exited Hotch's office and made his way back downstairs to where Amelia was typing away.

"I just need to clean up my desk and then we can head home." He interrupted her.

She cast a quick smile up at him, "Sounds good. I'll pack up." Amelia quickly put her things away, but paused when Hotch came by and told the rest of the team to head home and sleep. Morgan and Prentiss shot an inquisitive look at Spencer but didn't ask anything. _"Must be because of me,"_ Amelia thought to herself.

Morgan meandered over to Spencer, "You guys want a ride home? Seems like we are _all_ done early today."

Amelia saved Spencer from answering and chirped a bright, "Yes, thank you," and steered them towards the elevators.

Once inside the elevator Morgan deliberated for a moment and then turned to Spencer, "You know anything about this?"

"Ah, yes, sort of. I was consulting on a case for the Baltimore police when I noticed some similarities to a previous case I had seen on the news." Spencer flicked his eyes towards Amelia, letting Morgan know that he couldn't discuss anything further with her in attendance.

Morgan gave Reid an imperceptible nod, "Baltimore huh? Well, at least it's not too far."

Amelia noticed their silent exchange, but chose not to say anything. She knew that in Spencer's line of work there would be things that she couldn't be privy too, and she wasn't going to push. Instead, she asked Derek how his visit home went and shared her Las Vegas highlights.

Amelia and Spencer thanked Derek for the ride home and walked up the stairs to Spencer's apartment. He opened the door and flicked on the lights.

"Well, it looks like I only get you back for one night. Any idea how long you might be gone this time? Amelia asked.

"I really have no idea. I suppose it will depend on what Penelope finds."

"Well, I guess I'll have to feed you a good meal before you head back out there into the field." Amelia grabbed Spencer's hand, "Come on. Let's make fajitas tonight; you can start grating the cheese."

After dinner they put on some Beethoven and each pulled out a book to read. Amelia lay down and rested her head in Spencer's lap, a position that had become her favorite.

"Did you know that studies have shown that listening to classical music can increase the blood flow to several brain areas including the autonomic, cognitive and emotional centers? A separate area of the brain releases dopamine, which is a chemical that increases our ability to feel pleasure. This overall brain interaction creates a heightened sense of well-being."

"So what you're saying is that my current feeling of well being is produced by the music and not by being with you?" Amelia commented as she paused in her reading.

"No, no! I meant that it heightens what you feel," Spencer stuttered.

Amelia reached out and ruffled his hair, "I'm just kidding. All these heightened senses might make me never want to leave." She paused, hoping she hadn't scared Spencer. "I mean, not that I –"

"Shh," Spencer tilted her head back slightly so he could look straight into her eyes, "I love having you here too, and I like how things are progressing." He shrugged, "I never thought I would meet someone like you and one day I'd like to take things further, but for now we are both still getting to know each other."

Amelia opened her mouth in happy surprise; she didn't say anything back, just gave Spencer a heart melting smile before returning to her book. Her awkward Dr. was certainly coming out of his shell.

Spencer shut his book closed after he finished the last page. He was about to comment on the book when he looked down and saw that Amelia was fast asleep. He placed his book on the end table and then carefully took her book and placed it on top of his. He hated to wake her, but he couldn't move since she was using his leg as a pillow. Spencer gently shook her shoulder and said softly, "Let's go to bed." Amelia mumbled sleepily and began move a bit. Spencer managed to get her into a seated position so he could stand up. He crouched down a bit and whispered, "Wrap your arms around my neck."

Amelia did as he asked and groggily leaned her head against his shoulder as he scooped her legs up and started to walk towards his bedroom. His actions managed to shake the cobwebs from her head and Amelia mischievously batted her eyelashes. "Mmm, Special Agent Reid you are full of surprises. I do believe you just rescued me, I think I may have to thank you."


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: Warning! This chapter contains references to violent content; if that's not your thing (or is not permissible in your country) please don't read! **

**Happy Weekend! And for those American friends to the south of me, Happy Thanksgiving weekend! As always please R&R, it keeps me motivated...and may encourage me to post a longer chapter sooner. :-D**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds**

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The next morning Amelia stretched out her arms and then propped her hand under her head so she could watch as Spencer finished getting dressed.

"Sorry I didn't wake you earlier. I thought you might need the extra sleep," Spencer said when he noticed Amelia watching him.

"I don't mind. I was really tired. I don't think I slept well the other night." She yawned and rubbed her eyes a bit. "Yuck, I don't feel so great. I hope I'm not getting a cold, I have a long shift at the café today and then I have to continue working on my thesis," she gave a little sigh, "at least I don't have as many lectures to attend this term."

Spencer gave her a concerned look, "Why don't you call in sick today and take it easy. I can take you home before I go to work."

"Nah, it's okay sweetie. You go in. I'll be fine on my own. I just need a shower and a cup of tea. And maybe a kiss before you go." She invited him.

Spencer sat down beside her and after giving her a kiss said, "Call me if you don't feel any better. I can ask Penelope to check on you if I'm out of town."

Amelia waved away his concerns, "Thanks, but I also have Melissa. I just think I'm feeling a little rundown from the excitement of the past couple weeks. Once I adjust back to the boring world of school I'll be fine. You better go or you might be late. Be safe in Baltimore."

Spencer gave her one last look as he headed to the bedroom door, "I will. I'll talk to you later."

Amelia heard him put on his coat and head out the door. She made a sound of disgruntlement at the thought of getting out of bed, but forced herself to move anyway, mornings were just not her thing. She showered and got dressed before making herself some tea and toast. While she ate she gazed out the window and gloomily noted the darkened sky. _"Well, at least the weather fits my "blah" mood,"_ she thought. She cleaned up the remnants of her breakfast and got ready for work, purposely choosing clothing in bright colors in an attempt to brighten her mood. After locking up Spencer's apartment behind her she made her way to Poppy's.

Several hours into her shift Amelia was surprised to see JJ and Penelope walk through the door.

"I thought you guys were heading to Baltimore," Amelia questioned.

JJ explained as she pulled out a piece of paper filled with lunch orders, "We are still gathering some information. The case is a bit more complicated than we anticipated."

"That's why we decided to take a quick break and pick up lunch for everyone," Penelope chimed in.

Amelia reached for the paper, "Well, I'll get this filled quickly for you so you can get back."

JJ flashed a grateful smile, "Thanks."

Amelia rang the orders through and turned back to JJ and Penelope. Before she could talk to them any further the handsome guy from the other night stepped up to the counter. JJ and Penelope gave Amelia a quick nod and stepped to the side so they could chat quietly while Amelia served the new customer.

"Hello again," the man greeted Amelia.

"Hi, welcome back to Poppy's. What can I get for you today?" Amelia replied as she eyed her two friends out of the corner of her eye.

"I never properly introduced myself the other night. My name is Michael." He eyed her nametag, "and you are Amelia. Beautiful name."

Amelia snapped her eyes back to her customer. "Um, thanks. Would you like to order?" She repeated. _"Is he flirting with me?" _She thought to herself. It happened occasionally, and normally she took it all in good fun, but this was the first time it had happened since she and Spencer had become serious.

Michael appraisingly looked Amelia over, "Yeah, I'll take a special to go. If you are free later, maybe I could take you to dinner. Something a little more _refined_ than this quaint café. I work nearby, so I could pick you up when you are done your shift."

JJ and Penelope had whipped their heads around at Michael's mention of a dinner. He nodded to the two ladies with a suave smile and bent his head towards Amelia and whispered, "I think your friends are jealous."

"Yeah, maybe…" Amelia hedged feeling uncomfortable with all the attention. "I appreciate the offer, but I have a boyfriend and I doubt he'd like me having dinner with another man. He usually likes to be the one to take me out on romantic dinners." She tried to make her rejection sound like a joke, and to her relief the customer didn't seem to be too upset.

"Well, I didn't really think a beautiful woman like you would actually be single. Maybe I'll get lucky in the future and catch you when you don't have a boyfriend."

Amelia smiled weakly and finished assembling his order as fast as she could. After handing him the bag he gave a polite wave to the women at the counter watching him and made his way out the door. The "order up" bell rang causing Amelia to jump, she turned and grabbed the large bags containing the team's lunch and brought them over.

"Interesting customer," JJ ventured.

"He was definitely into you." Penelope continued.

Amelia forced herself to laugh at the pair, "Don't worry, I'm only interested in dating Spence. Besides I always found customers hitting on me at work a little tacky."

"Well, at least he was pretty decent eye candy," Penelope returned with her usual good cheer.

"If you like that perfectly sculpted physique that only a personal trainer can bring. I always found that those kinds of guys are high maintenance with not much substance," JJ observed.

Cutting off any further commentary, Amelia wished them luck on their case and headed over to seat two police officers who had just walked in. They were regulars of hers so she spent a few minutes chatting with them before continuing her rounds.

When the lunch rush slowed down Amelia took the opportunity to check her cell phone, there was one text from Spencer. _I do like taking you on romantic dinners. Would it be possible to take you out on one when I get back from Baltimore? We are heading out this evening and should be back in a couple days._

Amelia smiled and quickly typed back her response. _Sounds great! It's a date. Be safe. Xoxoxo._

JJ and Penelope had mentioned the customer who had been flirting with Amelia, but had quickly assured Spencer that Amelia hadn't been interested at all. It had still set Spencer off balance a bit. He _knew_ that he could trust Amelia, but Spencer also knew how much of a toll his job could take on a relationship. There was a reason Hotch and Rossi had divorced and why the others were still single. Only JJ had really seemed to figure out how to make things work. During their lunch break Spencer had questioned JJ on how to help minimize the impact his job took on his relationship with Amelia.

She had replied much the same way Hotch had years ago. "I'm in a slightly different situation that you, Will understands what it's like being in law enforcement. But when I am home, we really try to spend as much quality time together as possible. We focus on doing things together and leave our work at the office."

Spencer flushed at the last part of JJ's answer. He instantly thought back to the holidays when he had been so focused on the case and felt guilty. JJ patted his arm and suggested he take Amelia out for a romantic dinner. Before they could talk any further Hotch called their attention to the case in Baltimore.

"As you know Penelope was able to find several other cases that have a similar MO to the one in Baltimore and the one that Reid remembered from Connecticut." Hotch shifted his gaze to JJ, who continued briefing the team.

"So far we have identified 10 victims that have a similar MO. All were found along the East coast." JJ clicked the remote and the screen switched to a map. "Two were found in Connecticut, one in New Hampshire, one in Vermont, one in New Jersey, and 5 from New York City and its surrounding suburbs." As JJ named each area it flashed on the screen.

Morgan sent Hotch a surprised look, "Ten victims with a similar MO and we are just finding out about it _now?_"

Hotch took over the explanation, "The different states didn't share their information, so no one made the connection between them."

Morgan didn't look convinced, "Still, that's a lot of bodies."

JJ picked up the thread of conversation and continued on, "The victims that have been discovered span 8 years. The local police had a hard time linking the abductions until they started finding the bodies, which were all located in state or national parks within an hour or two of the abduction location. The bodies were placed about 100 feet away from the base of a hiking path within the park, and were only found when hikers stumbled across them. Some of these victims weren't found until several years later. So who knows how many others there are. The victims were all brutally tortured and raped for several days before they were strangled to death. There are signs that he possibly used a taser on them, this is likely how he abducted them since there were no visible signs of struggle at the abduction sites." The team grimaced at the severity of the crime. The screen changed again, this time to a map highlighting the state and national parks where the bodies had been found.

"He also crossed state lines when dumping the bodies, which makes it harder to link." Rossi observed.

JJ nodded, "By the time police had located all the bodies and made the connection the trail went cold. The police weren't sure what happened, but since the murders had stopped they didn't call for reinforcements." She paused,"So far, it appears that the first 6 victims all occurred in approximately 1 year intervals. Victims 7 and 8 were about 6 months apart. Victims 9 and 10 seem to be about 4 months apart. The victim in Baltimore was 6 months later."

"He also likes to travel," Hotch interrupted. "Victim one was abducted in Hampton, New Hampshire in July 2002; victim two from Brooklyn in September 2003; victim three from Manhattan in November 2004; victim four from Jeffersonville, Vermont in February 2005; victim six from Long Island, in March 2006; victim seven from Union City, New Jersey in January 2007; victim eight from Hartford, Connecticut in May 2008; victim nine from Lower Manhattan in November 2008; and victim ten in New Haven, Connecticut in March 2010. The victim from Baltimore was abducted September 2010."

"So he began to accelerate his timeline and then decelerated all of a sudden, in addition to changing geographical areas? That doesn't make sense," Prentiss noted.

"Maybe he moved for some reason," Spencer mused."Look at the map, those abductions all took place with an hour or two from New York City, except the one from Vermont and the one from New Hampshire. But those are nice vacation spots, and the women were abducted and killed during peak tourist season for their location. Then the UnSub moves and spends a couple months scouting out his new surroundings."

"He's unique," Morgan interjected. "Look at his victimology. The women are all in their early to mid twenties, physically fit and attractive. And they were all attending a university or college. What's different is that his victims come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds; he has abducted women from Middle Eastern, Caucasian, Asian, Hispanic, and African backgrounds. Now, you just don't see that very often."

Spencer flipped through several more pages of the case file before continuing his analysis, "He appears to be a _sadistic rapist_. This type of offender comprises only 1-3% of all known rapists. This type will often have a rape kit and a well thought out plan. His computer will be full of violent pornographic content. He won't make a move on his victim unless he is certain that there are no witnesses. He will often stalk his victims for weeks, possibly even months before making his move. This type of UnSub commonly has a script or ritual that he will want to reenact in order to become sexually capable. He thrives on psychological fear and only kills to silence the victim; he does not kill in anger. His ultimate goal is to mentally and physically harm his target."

Hotch nodded, "It's quite likely that the UnSub we are dealing with is highly intelligent, college educated and working in a white collar supervisory role, is likely in his mid to late thirties, and probably drives a high end vehicle, most likely an SUV with tinted windows. He will also be socially adept, and it is probable that the victim didn't suspect anything unusual when she came into close contact with him."

Prentiss looked up from the file and frowned, "So, if the UnSub is known to travel away from his home then it's likely that this case in Baltimore will be the only one in the city. Unless Baltimore is now is his home base." Spencer nodded in confirmation.

"I'm currently going through all the missing people's reports for the area and isolating the ones that match our UnSub's victim preference. So far there are no reports of anyone else in the Baltimore region that fit. I'm expanding the search to cover the state and surrounding areas," Garcia piped in. "I'm also running checks on older abduction cases to see if there are any others that fit the MO."

Hotch nodded and put the file down to address the entire team, "We are heading to Baltimore to investigate the crime scene and interview the family, since this is our freshest lead. We won't stay in Baltimore for very long, because it is doubtful that the UnSub will strike here again anytime soon, if at all. When we get back here we will divide up the rest of the victims and complete family interviews and first hand crime scene analysis. This man will strike again, and we need to be prepared. You have your assignments, let's hit the ground running. Wheels up in 10 minutes."

The team left the conference room and headed to their desks to grab their go bags. Just before they boarded the plane Spencer's phone dinged, signaling a new text message. He looked down and saw Amelia's response; it helped to lighten his mood considerably. After they were all on board the jet, Spencer leaned back and closed his eyes letting his mind drift back to New Years Eve in Las Vegas. 25 minutes later the jet touched down and Spencer headed out with Prentiss to interview the victim's family.


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N: A big thank you to everyone who is following or who favorited my story! Please R&R, I'd love to know your thoughts about how the story is progressing. Thanks!**

**Warning! This chapter contains references and descriptions of violent acts!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds, just my OCs.**

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Spencer rocked on his feet and put his hands in his pockets as Prentiss knocked on the midsized suburban home of the victim's family. A dark haired woman, dressed in a slightly rumpled looking dress, in her mid fifties appeared and opened the wooden door.

"Hi, Mrs. Monroe? I'm Agent Prentiss and this is Dr. Reid from the FBI. Would it be alright if we came in to talk?"

The tired looking woman opened the door wider for them to walk through, "Yes, Detective Davis called me and told me that you would be coming by to ask about Ashley. Please, call me Laura though." She started to sniff as her eyes welled with tears.

"We're sorry for your loss ma'am." Prentiss said gently as they sat down in the living room.

"Henry! The FBI are here." Mrs. Monroe called. A slightly overweight and balding man wearing a casual sweater walked into the living room. He sat down beside his wife and took her hand.

"We are already told the police everything we know," he began.

Prentiss interrupted him, "I know sir, but we might ask you other questions. We look for other details that will help us to create a profile on the person who did this to your daughter. That way we will have a better chance at catching him."

"Shh, Henry. If it helps to catch this awful person I'd answer their questions a hundred times over."

Spencer gave her a sympathetic smile, "Once should be enough. We won't take up anymore of your time than we have to. Can you tell us a bit about your daughter?"

Mrs. Monroe dabbed at her eyes with a tissue, "She was a good girl. She was in her last year of college, studying computer technology. She lived at home with us so that she wouldn't go into debt for school. She got excellent grades, had lots of friends, and volunteered at the animal shelter." Mrs. Monroe started to sob quietly. Mr. Monroe wrapped his arm around his wife and she buried her head in his shoulder.

Mr. Monroe picked up where his wife left off, "That's where she was taken from, the animal shelter. She had just called us to let us know that she was on her way home. She normally didn't go there so late, but there was a sick dog that she wanted to check on after her evening lecture."

"Had she gone there that late before?" Spencer questioned.

Mr. Monroe took a breath and nodded, "She had stopped by the previous two nights, but those other times were around 9 or 10pm rather than 11pm. We insisted she take the car so that she wouldn't be on public transportation so late at night."

"Did she ever mention anyone following or watching her? Did she ever receive any strange gifts, phone calls, or anything else out of the ordinary?" Prentiss asked.

"No, not to my knowledge," Mr. Monroe answered sadly.

Mrs. Monroe lifted her head up, "Wait a second. Ashley did mention a couple months before that she had a strange man come into the shelter. She said he looked at only one or two dogs and then spent the next twenty minutes trying to chat her up. Once she realized he wasn't going to adopt an animal she asked him to leave because there were other people who needed assistance."

Spencer started to scribble the details down in his notepad, "Did she describe what he looked like or talk about whether she saw him again?"

"No, that was the only time she ever brought it up. You could try talking to her friend Rachel. They are…_were_ best friends. If she spoke to anyone about it, it would have been her," Mrs. Monroe finished in a choked voice.

"Thank you so much for speaking with us Mr. and Mrs. Monroe. Would it be possible to take a look in Ashley's room?" Prentiss calmly asked.

Mr. Monroe nodded and said, "Up the stairs, second door on your left."

Spencer and Prentiss stood and made their way up the stairs. Inside Ashley's bedroom they found the remnants of a promising young woman with a bright future. A few awards were hung on the wall, along with a cork board displaying several photos of Ashley and her friends.

"No boyfriend," Prentiss noted.

"No sign of anything unusual on her computer," Spencer added. They gave the room a quick sweep and discovered nothing out of the ordinary. They made their way back downstairs and thanked Ashley's parents before heading back outside to their black SUV.

Spencer pulled out his phone and dialed Garcia, "This is Eagle 6, queen of all knowledge. Speak and be heard."

"Hi, Garcia. Could you check and see if there is any video surveillance from traffic cameras or other storefronts for the animal shelter in downtown Baltimore, or if they have any computer logs of people who visit the shelter?"

"Pfft, and I thought you were going to challenge me. Give me one second…" Spencer could hear Garcia typing rapidly through his phone.

"Sorry sweetie. Nada. They only keep logs of who adopts animals and who works at the shelter. There are no traffic cameras or any other source of video for that building entrance."

"Thanks Garcia." Spencer ended the call and looked at Prentiss who was also putting her phone down.

"I called the animal shelter. They don't have any security cameras, but they did have one person working with Ashley on the date the man visited her. It was her friend Rachel." Prentiss informed him.

"Well, at least that cuts down our driving a bit," Spencer remarked. "I'll call Hotch and give him an update while we head over to Rachel's."

Spencer and Prentiss pulled up outside of a rundown looking house. After they knocked a red-headed, heavyset girl opened the door, "Hello? May I help you?"

Prentiss smiled and began the interview process over again. A short time later they exited the house with not much more than they started with.

"That bastard is smart. He _knew _not to make any sort of contact with anyone other than the victim," Prentiss said with frustration.

"At least we have confirmation that the UnSub is white, dark haired, strong physique and about 6' tall. We're lucky that Rachel remembered anything after two and a half months," Spencer soothed. "We also know that he must be good looking, but not overly so, because he doesn't stand out in the crowd much."

"He must have been watching Ashley from a distance after that meeting, since she never mentioned seeing him again. He would have stood out too much if he had gone back into the shelter." Prentiss considered as she pulled into the police station. They waited a moment outside when they saw Morgan and Rossi pulling up behind them.

Once they were inside the conference room of the police station Hotch asked for updates on what they had learned. Prentiss filled them in on their interviews.

Spencer shifted his attention to Morgan as he described the secluded area where the body had been found.

"It was like the others, the body was placed about 100 feet off a hiking trail beneath a tree. If the hiker hadn't been a photographer after a picture of some rare bird, that poor girl might never have been found." Morgan related.

Rossi picked up the explanation, "The UnSub didn't try to hide the body other than placing it off the path, nor did he spend any time positioning it. He simply dumped the body. That tells me he doesn't feel remorse for any of these killings. Leaving the victim outside naked also shows that he's still torturing her. One final indignity for her to endure at his hands."

Hotch nodded, "I went to the coroner's office and saw the victim. This UnSub is patient and determined. He spent several days torturing the victim." He laid out several photographs, "As you can see, he whipped her repeatedly, most likely with a belt and beat her with his hands and feet. She had a severe concussion and hairline fractures in her wrist and ankle, most likely caused by her trying to escape the restraints he used. He also bastinadoed her feet, that is he hit the bottom of her feet with a wooden paddle to the point where she couldn't have walked anywhere without excruciating pain. She shows signs of repeated rape, and then he used the same belt to strangle her."

Spencer grimaced at the mention of the bastinado. He remembered the pain from when Tobias Henkel had beaten his foot, and that had only been a couple of blows.

"So the UnSub followed the same pattern with this victim as with the previous victims," Rossi considered. "The only difference with this one is that he introduced himself to her first. Do we know if any of the other victims met him prior to their abduction?"

Hotch shook his head in the negative, "That's what we need to find out. The rest of the details all follow the same pattern." He took a deep breath, "There's not much else we can do here, since it's unlikely the UnSub will strike here again. We'll tie up loose ends in the morning and head back home in the afternoon. Go get some sleep."

Spencer made his way to the SUV with Morgan in silence; they were both too weary to discuss the case any further. Once they reached their motel, Spencer bid Morgan goodnight and went to his room. As soon as he closed the door he pulled out his phone and dialed Amelia.

"Hey sweetie. How are you?" Amelia cheerfully greeted him.

Spencer let the warmth in Amelia's voice rush over him and wash away the coldness of the case he was working. "Hello. I'm…I'm alright." Spencer forced out.

Amelia felt a sense of alarm rising in her, "Spence, you're a terrible liar. I can tell you aren't telling me the truth. What's wrong?"

"It's just this case. It's…It's pretty bad. I let myself get too involved in it and I just needed to hear your voice to help clear it all out," Spencer closed his eyes and massaged the bridge of his nose with his free hand.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Amelia gently asked Spencer as she got up from her computer chair and sat down on her bed, "I'm here for you."

"I appreciate the offer, but all I've done today is discuss the case. I don't even know why this case is particular is bothering me so much, I've dealt with worse. I'd rather hear how your day went." Spencer replied as he idly picked at a loose thread on the cheap motel bedspread.

Amelia tilted her head thoughtfully, "My day was pretty slow. I managed to shake whatever minor bug was trying to invade my system through a weird herbal concoction my mom used to force me to drink as a child. I worked a short morning shift at Poppy's and did some grocery shopping. Then I worked on my thesis in the campus library for of the afternoon before fencing practice," she paused to take a breath, "I actually won two out of three matches today, so that was a pretty big highlight! Oh, and I was wondering if you could edit my thesis for me whenever you have some time. I'm a little more than halfway through and I'd love some feedback."

Spencer perked up at the thought of reading Amelia's thesis; her topic was a discussion of how Julius Caesar changed warfare strategies on the continent. "Congratulations on the wins! I'd love to edit your paper, I'm sure your analysis will be captivating and persuasive," Spencer enthused. "We are coming back tomorrow so I can start after I get off work if you like."

Smiling, Amelia replied, "I have morning lectures, and then I'm working the afternoon shift, but I'm off around 6pm. Your place or mine?"

"I should be out of the office by 7pm," Spencer began.

"Then why don't you come and stay with me since I live closer to your work. I can have dinner waiting for you," Amelia suggested cheerily. "Is there anything you'd like for dinner in particular?"

"_You,"_ the thought came unbidden to Spencer. He cleared his throat, "Um, no! Nothing specific. I'm sure I'll like whatever you make."

"Well, what about dessert? I can make something sweet with chocolate in it." Amelia offered as she went through her mental list of recipes.

_"I'd like you dipped in chocolate,"_ once again the thought slipped through Spencer's mind. "Um, whatever you decide is good with me," he managed to squeak out.

Amelia laughed, "Well you sure are easy to please. I'll figure something out. Are you coming down with a cold? Your voice sounds off."

Spencer tried to redirect his thoughts but failed miserably, "I'm fine...I'm just thinking about you."

"Mmm, hmm. I see. Well, in that case, I will definitely be seeing you tomorrow night. Love you," Amelia chuckled.

"I love you too," Spencer finished his call and decided to take a cold shower to help clear his head before getting some sleep.


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far, here's a long chapter full of fluffy fun. Things are about to heat up...in more ways than one, so stay tuned!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds.**

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After the team had returned to FBI headquarters in Quantico Hotch divided up the interviews and on site investigations for the other victims. Prentiss would be accompanying Morgan to the locations where the bodies had been left. Spencer and Rossi were handling the New York City interviews, and Hotch and JJ were going to conduct the New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Vermont interviews. They would be leaving first thing Monday morning.

"You guys are off duty until we fly out, so get some rest," Hotch instructed as they packed up their files and left the conference room.

Spencer packed up and was down the elevator in the record time. Penelope was muffling her laughter with her hand as she watched Spencer rush to leave. She nodded to Morgan, "Think boy wonder there has a hot date?"

Morgan pretended to ponder the question for a moment, "He might have a date, but I doubt it's as sweet as you are baby."

"You do know how to make a girl feel special hot stuff," Penelope replied as she took hold of Morgan's arm. "Why don't we go for dinner?"

"Anytime baby girl, you just say the word." Morgan and Penelope gathered up their coats and joined the exodus.

Spencer paused for a minute outside of Amelia's door in order to catch his breath. He had hurried his way from the Metro station to her apartment, not even stopping off at home to get his car. He nervously brushed his hand through his hair and knocked on the door, trying futilely to force his unruly thoughts and daydreams about Melissa and chocolate into submission. Barely a moment later the door opened to reveal Melissa.

Melissa smiled in welcome and gestured for him to come in. "Amelia is pulling the casserole out of the oven. She decided to spice things up a bit tonight," Melissa saucily winked at Spencer, who's face immediately flushed guiltily.

"Hey Spence!" Amelia called from the kitchenette, "Go drop your stuff in my room and come sit down. Dinner is ready to serve."

"Isn't she the best? Wait till you see what she made for dessert, it's _extra_ yummy," Melissa added with further humor ringing in her voice.

Spencer felt the tips of his ears go red at the mention of dessert, and was grateful that his hair was long enough to conceal them. He gave Melissa a wan smile and went to do as Amelia suggested. He purposely ignored the knowing look Melissa shot at his back as he walked down the hall.

Melissa returned to the kitchen and leaned against the breakfast bar. "Dr. Reid is hiding something, and I think I know what it is," she whispered playfully.

"Oh stop. He's just reacting to your innuendos. Leave the poor man alone." Amelia scolded, "He's been working a rough case."

"Maybe he'll work your case later tonight," Melissa said with a mocking laugh.

"Sit!" Amelia ordered as she laughed at her roommate's antics. She walked over and gave Spencer a kiss as he nervously sat down at the kitchen table across from Melissa.

"This smells delicious, what is it?" Spencer asked as he inhaled the mouth watering aroma wafting from the casserole dish in the center of the table.

"Salmon casserole, like my mom used to make. It's great on a cold winter's day" Amelia replied as she handed him a plate with his serving. She paused and glanced out the window, "Or a damp, chilly day like in Quantico. Although, I have noticed it's been a bit colder this year than last year."

"Did you know that the "casserole" originates from the French word for saucepan? The precursor to modern casseroles was actually invented by a French Canadian immigrant named Elmire Jolicouer in 1866 in Berlin, New Hampshire. The casseroles that we eat today are relatively new and became popular in the 1950s, although fell out of style in the 1970s as it was seen as a less-sophisticated dish. This type of casserole," Spencer indicated the salmon casserole they were eating, "which uses cream of mushroom soup as the stock base is a very typical style of cooking casserole for parts of Canada, the Midwest and the south of the United States."

Amelia gave Spencer a grin, "Eat before it gets cold. Although, I have to admit, I had no idea that a French Canadian invented the dish. That's pretty cool."

Melissa rolled her eyes at Spencer with good humor. She was becoming used to his rambling, encyclopedia facts; and even enjoyed it sometimes.

They spent the meal chatting about how Amelia's thesis was coming and along, and her recent fencing wins. Melissa excitedly informed them that she was being considered for a promotion at her publishing job.

"I won't just be the gopher anymore! I'll actually be an assistant to one of the editors. I might even get a chance to help summarize some of the books that are being considered!"

Spencer asked with interest, "When do you find out if you have the new position?"

"On Monday. The previous assistant found a better job elsewhere so they need to fill the position quickly. The only downside is that I don't think I'll be able to continue taking classes at the university. My workload at the office is going to be heavier."

Amelia added in with a bit of disappointment, "That's too bad. I guess I lose my bus buddy on Tuesdays now. At least we aren't too far into the term. You should be able to get a partial refund on your tuition." Melissa nodded in agreement.

Melissa turned to Spencer, "So what big, bad case has been keeping you busy these past few days Spencer?"

Spencer gave a slight frown and considered his words carefully because he didn't want to frighten them with the details of the case and end up panicking them. "There were a series of murders in the New York area that seem to be connected with a recent victim in Baltimore. We are just lending a hand to see what we can find out."

Both Amelia and Melissa shivered, Baltimore was getting a little close to Quantico.

"I hope you catch whoever did that soon," Amelia said in a tight voice.

Spencer nodded his head in agreement and replied, "Me too."

"And on that note, why don't you bust out that delicious chocolate mousse Amy?" Melissa piped in, "Spencer and I will clean up the dishes. I get the feeling he's anxious to be oh, so alone with you."

Amelia flashed her friend a grin and went to the fridge to remove the mousse dishes that she had made and placed them on the counter so she could drizzle the raspberry sauce on them. After fishing out the dessert spoons from the drawer she brought them over to the table where she waited for Melissa and Spencer to finish loading the dishwasher. Once they were all seated again they began to eat.

Melissa closed her eyes in appreciation and moaned, "Oh my God Amy. I might have to keep you as my roommate forever. This is delicious."

Amelia smiled and thanked her before turning to Spencer and inquiring how he liked it. Unfortunately, he was staring off into the distance over Amelia's shoulder with a vacant look in his eyes, and a slight quirk to his lips. It wasn't until she snapped her fingers in front of his face that Spencer realized Amelia was speaking to him.

"Sorry, what was the question? I was just thinking of something…" Spencer said apologetically as he fought to keep his face from betraying his thoughts, "_thinking of you covered in chocolate mousse."_

Melissa hastily shoved the last bit of mousse in her mouth and announced, "I'm all done, so why don't I finish cleaning up and you two go…and, ah, have some _alone time_." Amelia flashed her a grateful look and grabbed Spencer's hand before leading him from the kitchen to her bedroom. Melissa shook her head in amused exasperation, "Yeesh, the way those two act you'd think they're fifteen year olds with raging hormones."

As soon as she had closed the door behind her, Amelia turned to Spencer and regarded him impishly, "So you never did answer my question. How did you like the mousse?"

Spencer took a long look into Amelia's eyes and answered honestly, "It was good, but I think it would taste better if I could lick it off of you."

With a sultry look full of promise, Amelia gestured to the bowl of mousse she had managed to bring with her, "I think that can be arranged."

After a long and eventful night the sun's brightness seeped through the window and lit up Amelia's bedroom. Spencer felt the warmth on his face and an unusual numbness in his arm. He looked down and smiled contentedly at Amelia; she was spooned up to him with her back against his side and was using his arm as a pillow. He rolled into her so he was pressed tightly around her, cocooning her with his body.

"Mmm, I want to wake up like this every day Spence," Amelia sleepily mumbled as she nestled further into his embrace.

Spencer rested his chin on the top of Amelia's head, "I'll do my best whenever I'm here."

Amelia carefully rolled over so that she was facing Spencer, "I forgot to ask you last night; how long are you home? I remember you mentioning you have to go to New York soon."

"I'm here for the weekend. I fly out Monday morning," Spencer replied absently while tracing an imaginary line down Amelia's arm.

Amelia paused in anticipation, "So I have you for the whole weekend? It's a good thing I switched shifts with Darcy. I have the whole weekend free too!"

A huge smile lit up Spencer's face; this would be the first full weekend they had had together. In the past one of them always had to work at least part of the weekend. He was about to suggest different outings they could go when his gaze focused on the way the sun was highlighting specific parts of Amelia's body. Later, he could suggest things later.

"This is crazy!" Amelia gasped in merriment, "It's already past noon! How on earth did we let the day slip away so fast?"

Spencer leaned against the headboard watching Amelia pulling a sweater over her head. He arched his eyebrow and gave her a satisfied grin, "Distraction was key."

Before Amelia could respond her stomach growled loudly. "How come it's always my stomach rumbling?" she jokingly complained.

"The rumbling sound you hear is due to the release of acids and other digestive fluids in your intestinal track. They are triggered by hunger or by the thought of eating. I don't think my stomach makes noises because I've been so focused on _other_ things." Spencer answered irreverently.

Amelia rolled her eyes and grabbed Spencer's hands to help pull him out of bed, "Come on lazy bones, let's go eat before I wither away to nothing."

Spencer obliged and got dressed, but not before Amelia was able to sneak in a quick grope of his strong, smooth abdomen. He joined Amelia in the kitchen and set the table while she fixed them poached eggs and bacon. Spencer poured himself a cup of coffee from the coffee maker and added his usual large quantity of sugar. Amelia shook her head at his coffee ritual and refocused on spooning the eggs out of the boiling water.

Spencer casually leaned against the counter sipping his coffee, "Why don't you come spend the rest of the weekend at my place? That way we won't bother Melissa."

Amelia let out a choked giggle. "That might be a good idea." About an hour after they had closed her bedroom door they had heard Melissa snickering before she went to her room and turned her stereo up very loud. Amelia quickly finished plating their food and Spencer carried the plates to the table while Amelia poured herself some orange juice. They ate companionably with a few knowing smiles exchanged, before Amelia went to her room to pack an overnight bag. Before she finished zipping it closed, she threw in the Christmas lingerie with the hope that she wore it for an even shorter period of time time than she had in Las Vegas. She popped her head into Melissa's room to let her know that she would be with Spencer for the rest of the weekend.

Melissa looked up in disappointment, "Oh, do you guys have a date planned for tonight? Penelope was just asking if we wanted to go back to _The Heat_ tonight. She said most of the team was going to be there."

"I don't think we have anything planned. Let me ask Spence, one sec…" Amelia turned her head towards Spencer and asked if they were free that evening and whether or not he wanted to go out.

"I was going to take you out for that dinner, but we can easily go tomorrow if you would rather go with the others tonight," he answered good naturedly.

Amelia turned back to Melissa, "We're in. We'll see you there."

Melissa held her finger up signaling for Amelia to wait a moment, "Derek said he can pick you guys up since it's on his way if you want."

"Sure. That would be great. Tell him I said thanks. I'll see you later Mel." Amelia turned and headed back down the hall after Melissa said a distracted goodbye in between her texting.

Amelia held Spencer's free hand since the other was carrying her bag, "I can't believe that she has become so buddy-buddy with Penelope and Derek."

"They share similar outgoing and flamboyant personalities that fuel each other," Spencer commented while they made their way over to the Metro station for the trip back to Spencer's place. Amelia gave him a horrified look filled with mirth, "So they make each other _more _outrageous?"

"Yes, but at least their behavior is tempered by their deep friendship with us."

"I suppose that's some kind of comfort," Amelia responded.

Amelia was in Spencer's room unpacking a few of her toiletries when Spencer entered the room and awkwardly stood off to her side.

"If you like…I mean, if it would be more convenient…you could, um, leave some things here so that you wouldn't have to bring so much clothing and toiletries back and forth," Spencer offered.

Beaming, Amelia turned and kissed Spencer full on the mouth, "That would be lovely, thank you."

Spencer cleared his throat, "I cleaned out…that is, the top drawer in the dresser is empty if you would like to use it. There's also the shelf in the bathroom and some room in the closet."

Amelia nodded and gave him another kiss before taking out her clothing and placing it in the drawer and hanging her dresses in the closet.

After Amelia finished unpacking her bag they went out for a few groceries before settling onto Spencer's comfortable couch to watch some TV. During one of the commercials Spencer made his way to the bathroom and smiled at seeing Amelia's toiletries scattered on the shelf, a sharp contrast to his orderly array of hair products and razors. It was a different sight that made him feel a little uncertain about his invitation until he realized how lonely his life had been before she came along, and how full it was now.

When he returned to the living room Amelia handed him a bowl of chicken salad she had made and they ate while watching a _Dr. Who_ rerun. As the credits rolled Spencer checked the time and told Amelia that they had forty five minutes before Derek was due to arrive.

Amelia made a face before she nodded and headed off to the bathroom to get ready. Spencer cleaned the cream colored dishes, straightened the already tidy living room and went to take a quick shower once he heard Amelia the water turn off.

Amelia stood in front of the foggy bathroom mirror blow drying her hair when she turned and gave Spencer a wink as he pulled the navy blue geometric patterned shower curtain closed, "Mmm…looking good Dr. Reid. I think the after party here is going to be more exciting than the lounge." She returned her attention back to her hair and finished drying it.

Spencer stepped out of the shower and briskly dried himself off with his fluffy dark blue towel while he watched Amelia carefully applying sparkly gold eye makeup to her exotically shaped almond eyes. He avidly studied her, curious to see the ritual that women put themselves through before going out.

Amelia arched an eyebrow at Spencer, "Are you just going to watch or are you going to finish drying yourself?"

Spencer flushed and realized that he had absentmindedly been drying his arm and shoulder repeatedly while staring at Amelia. He draped the towel around his lean hips and stepped over to the bathroom sink to style his hair. It was the first time he had shared the bathroom with Amelia while they both got ready to go out for an evening. Previousl,y they had taken turns in the bathroom, but he felt braver after she had agreed to leave some of her things at his place. He ran a wooden brush through his hair and decided that he liked sharing the bathroom, it was a tight squeeze, but he enjoyed the feeling of closeness that it brought.

Amelia noted the shifting facial expressions on Spencer's face and wondered if he was feeling as content as she was. His hazel eyes met her blue eyes in the mirror and he answered her unasked question, "I'm really glad you're here." He put his brush down and dropped a kiss on her shoulder before walking across the hallway to the bedroom.

Amelia finished putting on her lipstick and joined Spencer in his room. True to most men's ability to be ready for an event in under 15 minutes, Spencer was doing up the last button on his shirt. Amelia looked him over appreciatively and shooed him out of the room so she could get dressed without distraction. Spencer headed over to the kitchen for a quick cup of coffee while he waited for Amelia and Derek. Spencer was stirring in his sugar when he heard a knock on the door, he looked through the peep hole and opened the door to let Derek in.

"You look good man," Derek noted as he took in Spencer's dark blue button down and black slacks.

"Thanks. Amelia is almost ready. Would you like some coffee?" Spencer offered.

"Sure. Tonight should be fun, the whole team except Rossi is coming, He said he had other arrangements made for tonight. JJ is bringing Will." Spencer relaxed noticeably, he was always more comfortable when he was with his team.

In Spencer's room Amelia was busy pulling out the clothes she would need for tonight. She opted to go with tight black pants that had an iridescent shimmer and a red halter style top that was stylized with swirling flames across the front. She put her favorite black stilettos on and made her way out to the living room where Derek and Spencer were lounging.

Derek let out an admiring whistle, "Damn, You are going to have a hard time keeping the guys away from her tonight kid."

"I can look after myself, thank you," Amelia replied saucily. "But I do appreciate the back up. Besides, I plan on getting this one on the dance floor," she gestured to Spencer, "so I doubt a guy would have the opportunity to come close; especially with all you burly men there to scare them away." The two men chuckled and stood; Spencer inwardly groaned at the thought of dancing.


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N: Thanks to Tannerose5, booklover1598, and Dalonega Noquisi foryour great reviews! They keep me going!**

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By the time they arrived at the lounge the rest of the team was already there and seated at the same booth they had used the last time they had gone out. After greeting everyone, Spencer and Derek made their way over to the bar to order some drinks before rejoining the group. Spencer handed Amelia a beer and listened in on Melissa's latest disaster date.

"Honestly! I don't know why I even bother continuing to try. They always end up with some kind of freaky hobby or something." Melissa complained, "I mean, the guy is 33, lives at home with his mom and still lets her take him clothing shopping! Who lets their mother pick out their clothing at 33? Seriously, he even invited me on their next shopping outing since he had to cut our date short to meet her at the department store."

Spencer and the rest of the group tried to unsuccessfully hide their grins. Penelope patted Melissa's hand and proposed that the next time Melissa had a date she could run a quick background check on him.

Oblivious to Aaron's slight frown, Melissa agreed with enthusiasm, "That would definitely help weed out some of the real trolls!" Emily and JJ continued to tease Melissa until Penelope declared that it was time to go dancing. The guys elected to remain at the booth a bit longer while the girls headed out to the dance floor. Aaron and Will were trading stories about Henry and Jack when they turned the conversation towards Spencer.

"Things seem to be going really well for you and Amelia," Aaron noted.

Spencer let his gaze drift over to where Amelia was giggling at something JJ had said while they danced. "Yes, they are. She means more to me than anything else in the world. Even my mother seems to be quite taken with her." The others seemed to be genuinely happy for Spencer, and a little taken aback by his candidness. They continued to talk about inconsequential things over their drinks until the ladies strolled back to the table breathless. Spencer frowned at the admiring glances the other male patrons were sending towards the women. The girls flopped down in their seats and Spencer looked around for Amelia.

"She went to grab a bottle of water from the bar," Emily answered Spencer's questioning look.

At the crowded bar Amelia tried to wedge herself between a couple of drunk coeds so that she could flag down the bartender. The lounge was really filling up with people tonight, Amelia reflected as she leaned to the side to avoid a swaying redhead. Amelia managed to squeeze a little closer towards the counter when she felt a tap on her shoulder; she turned her head and masked an exasperated sigh. Michael, the customer from Poppy's was grinning delightedly at her. He had been in to the café a couple more times since he had asked her out, although he had never lingered again he still made her a little uneasy.

"Fancy meeting you here, can I buy you a drink?" Michael asked with a secretive grin. Amelia felt like he was laughing at a joke only he knew.

"No, thank you. I'm just getting some water." Amelia was proud that she had kept her voice even, despite having to speak loudly over the thumping music.

Michael slid a bit closer, pretending to make room for a greased up twenty-something year old behind him. "I suppose you are here with your _boyfriend," _his eyes seemed to ice over for a second before resuming their faux innocent look.

"Yeah, I am actually. I'm here with a whole group of people," Amelia replied as she turned to hastily flag down the bartender. She quickly ordered her water and was waiting for the bartender to return when she felt an arm slip around her waist. Amelia turned so she could snap at Michael to take his hands off her when she saw Spencer's puzzled face instead. Spencer took in her expression and asked if she was okay. Amelia looked around him and saw that Michael had disappeared from view. She shook her head, accepted the bottle of water from the bartender and turned to follow Spencer out of the crowd.

"Sorry, a persistent customer from the café was bugging me at the bar," Amelia explained as they rejoined their friends.

Penelope looked over at Amelia as she caught the last part of her comment. "That cute guy from the café was here?" She craned her neck around scanning the milling throng of people in the distorted lights trying to catch sight of him. "What did he want?"

Amelia gave Spencer an apologetic look and replied, "He asked if he could buy me a drink and was checking to see if I still had a boyfriend." She huffed in exasperation, "because that would have changed in the last couple days. Seriously, what a tool." The girls laughed and Derek shot Spencer an "I-told-you-so" look. The next time the ladies went out to dance Spencer didn't argue when Amelia pulled him along too.

Neither noticed the handsome man towards the back of the lounge sipping a beer with a calculating gleam in his eye as he watched the young couple.

Amelia quickly forgot about Michael as she pulled out all the stops to tease Spencer. When she looked over at her friends she noted that Derek, Will, and even Aaron had joined them on the dance floor. Amelia flashed them a smile and giggled at how Derek had already found a sultry looking Latino woman to dance with. She spun around and pressed her back against Spencer's front and he slid his arm around her waist. Amelia was delighted that Spencer was actually dancing with her, while nowhere near as smooth as Derek; he was actually holding his own. Spencer still felt slightly uncomfortable dancing in the busy lounge, but he was relaxed enough to enjoy the feel of Amelia in his arms.

The crowd on the dance floor started to become oppressive a few songs later and the group gave up on dancing. Melissa had complained about sweaty men pressing into her backside loudly enough that Aaron had hovered around her to help keep the unwanted men away during the last song. They all reclaimed their seats and finished off their drinks, laughing at Melissa's rant over the barely legal _infant_ trying to slobber on her.

"Seriously, if you hadn't stepped in Aaron, I might have had to knock him out. He was so irritating, and wouldn't take no for an answer, it was like he really believed I enjoyed having him press so close to me that his sweat dribbled onto my neck. So gross!" Melissa complained.

"I'm glad I could be of assistance," Aaron replied with a rare smile stretching across his face. He checked his watch and swallowed his last sip of beer, "It's getting late guys. I'm going to get going so that I'm not too tired for Jack tomorrow. See you Monday." He slid out of the booth amidst farewells and made his way outside. JJ and Will were quick to follow Aaron since they didn't want to keep their babysitter too late.

One more round of drinks later and the rest of the group decided to call it a night too. Amelia and Spencer assured Derek that they would get a cab home so that he could continue his evening with the Latino woman unimpeded.

Amelia breathed in the cold night air and snuggled against Spencer's side while they waited for a taxi. "I had a really great time tonight. You're a great dancer!" She complimented Spencer.

"I had fun too," he grinned as he opened the taxi door for Amelia.

Sunday brought the enthusiastic couple into Washington DC so that they could go to the Smithsonian Museum. Spencer had promised Amelia a special surprise and she could hardly keep herself from pestering him for details. Instead of going to the counter to purchase tickets Spencer made his way over to an older gentleman in a suit who smiled and extended his hand in greeting when he caught sight of Spencer.

"Dr. Reid, so good to see you! Are you here to tell me that you are finally giving up working at the FBI and applying for a position here?" the older man joked.

Spencer shook his head good naturedly, "Sorry Dr. Brahams, not today. Let me introduce you to my girlfriend, Amelia." Amelia extended her hand and exchanged pleasantries with Dr. Brahams before sending Spencer a quizzical look. Dr. Brahams motioned for them to join him as he walked to a door that had a sign claiming "Employees Only."

As soon as they walked through the door Dr. Brahams turned to Amelia with genuine warmth, "Spencer has told me so much about you Ms. Brooke."

"He has, has he?" Amelia replied questioningly.

"Yes, he was telling me about your thesis and your interest in managing an academic library. He also briefed me on your practical experience working in archaeology. I'm very impressed that you managed to go on three archaeological excavations in the Mediterranean while you were an undergraduate. The underwater survey you conducted on the Roman naval base sounded quite exciting."

Spencer caught Amelia trying to silently ask him what was going but only smiled reassuringly.

Amelia decided that it would be prudent to reply back to Dr. Brahams once she realized that Spencer wasn't going to clarify what was going on. "Yes, it was a great experience. I spent a lot of time SCUBA diving back home, so it was really gratifying to extend that ability into archaeology. We were thrilled that we were able to confirm the existence of the naval base, it helped us form a greater understanding of trade routes during the early Roman Imperial period."

Dr. Brahams stopped in front of a door that had his name on it; he opened it up and motioned for them to sit down in the chairs in front of a desk. "Spencer mentioned that you are also fluent in Latin, Greek and Italian?"

Completely uncertain about where the conversation was heading Amelia answered, "Yes, I am. If it's not too rude, could I ask what this is about? Spencer," she gave him a disgruntled look, "didn't tell me that we were meeting anyone. I thought we were here to see the exhibits."

Dr. Brahams' eyes crinkled in amusement and he slapped his open palm on the desk, "Spencer! You always were one for jokes."

Amelia's eyes widened in surprise and she thought, _"He was?"_

Dr. Brahams waved his hand, "I was catching up with Spencer here the other day, I was his advisor while he was completing his sociology degree and we still keep in touch, and he mentioned your areas of study. It just so happens that we are going to need an assistant librarian to help manage some of our texts at the beginning of the summer. Our current assistant is going on maternity leave. The position will only be a contract one, but if you fit in well then we might be able to find you a permanent position afterwards."

Amelia was speechless; this was one heck of a surprise and she wasn't sure what to say or do.

Spencer added in with a touch of uncertainty, "I sent him a copy of your thesis, even though it's not complete it's very impressive." Dr. Brahams nodded in agreement.

Tears welled in Amelia's eyes, "This is…wow, I can't even describe!" She took a deep breath and pulled herself together, "I would love the job! Thank you."

Dr. Brahams smiled and added, "This job would be dependent upon you graduating of course, but from the look of your thesis, I don't think you'll have any difficulties. I'll send you the formal job description so that you can look it over. Let me know if you have any questions. We can sort all the details out after you graduate."

"I…thank you Dr. Brahams! I really look forward to this opportunity!" Amelia said excitedly.

Spencer stood and shook hands with Dr. Brahams, "Thanks again."

"My pleasure Spencer, you actually did me the favor here. I was certain I was going to have a difficult time filling this position, the previous candidates were less than stellar." Dr. Brahams continued, "Go enjoy the exhibits, it's on the house today."

Spencer led Amelia from the office and guided her towards a bench off to the side in the public area. "I hope I didn't overstep myself," he ventured nervously when she failed to say anything after they left Dr. Braham's office.

Amelia felt the tears welling out of her eyes and she buried her face in his shoulder. Spencer rubbed her back uncertainly. Amelia began to giggle at how absurd she must appear to Spencer, crying when he did something so wonderful for her. She dried her eyes and lifted her head so that she could look at him square in the eye, "You are the _most_ amazing boyfriend anywhere. I can't believe you did that for me. I'm overwhelmed by your generosity."

Spencer tried to brush it off, "It wasn't a big deal. Dr. Brahams had been complaining about the empty position the last time we spoke and I just offered him a possible candidate. It was your resume that impressed him."

Amelia narrowed her eyes with good humor, "Resume? I never gave you my resume. Dare I ask where you found it?"

Spencer grinned back, relieved to know that she was so happy with the outcome of the meeting, "It helps to know people who are good with computers."

Giggles bubbled up in Amelia, "Remind me to thank Penelope later. Come on, let's go look at the exhibits and see who knows more about the artifacts."

Amelia reached across the candlelit table and squeezed Spencer's hand, "I had a really good time today. Thank you. Jason is going to flip when I tell him the news."

"It was no problem, really. You deserve it." Spencer glanced down at the menu in his hand, "I've never had Greek food before, could you recommend anything?"

"I'm a fan of moussaka myself, but you might prefer a gyro platter. It will give you a sample of everything. If you like cheese we can start off with saganaki."

Spencer grinned, "Sounds good to me. Did you know that _saganaki_ is actually a word that refers to a dish with two handles? It was borrowed from the Turkish language, which in turn borrowed it from Arabic. Saganaki is a style of cooking, the most popular dish is friend cheese."

"I'll bet you read a book on Greek history and food when you booked this restaurant, just so you would be able to quote something at me." Amelia mocked with good humor.

Spencer gave her a secretive smile, "I'll never tell."

The food was delicious, and Spencer was glad that he followed Amelia's suggestion, the cool night air was refreshing. The restaurant wasn't very far away from Spencer's apartment so they walked back when they finished their meal.

"I'm glad we're walking back, I'll be able to digest my food a bit easier. I think I ate too much, but it was so good," Amelia commented as she rubbed her stomach with her hand. Spencer chuckled and laced his fingers through hers and steered her back to his building. Neither noticed the black SUV in the distance, or the driver who was busy snapping photos of the carefree couple.


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N: I managed to write up a short chapter today; I'm going to do my best to keep the momentum going throughout the Christmas holidays, so stay tuned! I hope you enjoyed Spencer's surprise for Amelia in the last chapter! And as always, please R&R! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the story and characters. Who knows, maybe some of your suggestions could end up in the story! :)**

**Warning: There are some references to violent/graphic content in this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds, just my own OCs.**

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Monday morning came too fast. Spencer was sad that their fantastic weekend had come to an end, but he knew that there were families out there waiting for answers. He and Amelia got dressed and entered the Metro station together. She gave him a kiss and headed towards the line that would take her to school and he headed towards the platform that would take him to FBI headquarters.

Spencer walked into the bullpen with his paper cup of coffee in hand and made his way over to his desk. Emily looked up from her work and asked how Amelia had reacted to the job offer.

"She was pleased, thrilled really. I think that she will do well there," Spencer replied. Emily congratulated him on his efforts and was about to ask for more details when Hotch strode out of his office and put his hands on the railing, "Wheels up in 10 minutes people, let's go." Emily and Spencer grabbed their go bags and headed for the elevators. It was time to focus on the job at hand.

By Thursday the team had exhausted all their possible leads. They were able to confirm without a doubt that the UnSub they were investigating was the one responsible for all the murders on their list. In a few of the cases the families had mentioned that the victim had interacted with a tall, handsome man, in some way; but there was no way to tell if it was the UnSub or just a random encounter. Too much time had passed in many of the instances.

Hotch addressed his team in the conference room of the New York City field office. "Right now it looks as though our UnSub is from New York City, most likely from a wealthy family in Manhattan. His earliest victims are from this area, and this type of serial killer tends to start in an area that he's familiar with."

Rossi looked up from the file he was examining, "Yes, but even the earliest victim we have record of is too sophisticated for his first kill, there's no evolution. We're missing something."

Hotch nodded and addressed Garcia through the conference phone, "Garcia, can you pull all the case files for female homicides in the 5 years prior to our first victim, narrow the list to exclude anyone who doesn't fit the victimology of our UnSub."

"Sure thing boss, I'm sending it to you now."

Hotch ended the call and was about to continue speaking when JJ's cell phone rang. She looked at the call display and pressed the talk button, "You've reached Agent Jareau…uh huh. Okay, thanks. Hold the crime scene for us. We will be there as soon as we can. Bye."

By the end of her brief conversation everyone had their eyes riveted to the slender blonde. "Hikers found a body in a state park just outside of Washington DC. The MO fits our UnSub."

"That's his second victim in his new area, one more and we should be able to create a more accurate geographic profile," Spencer commented.

Morgan sent Hotch a troubled look, "That's also his second victim in the past three months. Depending on how long the victim has been deceased he's probably already stalking his new target. We're running out of time," Morgan added in, frustration ringing in his voice.

"Then let's not waste anymore. Grab your bags and meet at the jet in thirty. We're heading back home," Hotch replied.

As soon as they were in the air Hotch called Penelope and put her on speakerphone, "I need you to find any information on missing persons from the DC area that match the UnSub's preferences for the past year."

Penelope checked her computer screen, "There are two missing. One is Jane Parker, 26 year old retail clerk at the local mall, she was reported missing last June when she didn't show up for work after a weekend away with friends. The friends claimed that she left in anger on the Saturday and assumed that she had driven home. Police never found her car or any other leads."

"Was she a college student?" Prentiss asked.

"Negative." Garcia answered back as she double checked her information on the computer monitor.

Morgan rubbed his chin, "That's not our UnSub then. The departure from the party was too sudden. Our UnSub likes to have more control than that. He carefully considers where and how he is going to take his victim."

Rossi picked up, "What about the second missing girl?"

Garcia quickly scanned over the pertinent information and continued, "The second woman Alisha Lopez was reported missing by her boyfriend in late November. She was out walking the dog at a local park after her evening class at college. She never came home. Police found the dog wandering the streets the next day. No sign of Alisha was ever found."

"Well, she definitely fits the UnSub's requirements," Rossi commented.

Hotch nodded in agreement, "The coroner should have a preliminary report once we land, hopefully we will be able to make a positive ID."

One of the Washington DC field agents was dispatched to greet BAU team when they landed and provide any assistance that they required. He briefed them as they walked towards the agency's trademark black SUVs.

"The victim's name is Alisha Lopez. She went missing November 14. It looks like her body has been outside for about two months, maybe a bit longer," Agent Wilson reported as he briskly walked beside Hotch.

Hotch thanked the agent and turned to his team, "Rossi, Prentiss, you two go interview the boyfriend. Morgan and Reid, you head over where the body is. JJ, you're with me, we need to set up a press conference to alert the public. If he hasn't already taken his next victim he's about to, we need his target group to be on guard."

Everyone agreed and headed out to fulfill their tasks. On the w ay to the state park Spencer carefully controlled his voice and broached a concern that had been gnawing at him all week, "Morgan, Amelia fits into the UnSub's target group."

Morgan gave his friend a reassuring look as she shook his head, "She does, but she's living in Quantico right now. The UnSub has taken a woman in Baltimore and now in DC. It's possible that he's from the Baltimore area, which makes it unlikely that he would go near Quantico. There are too many other areas for him to choose from. If it makes you feel any better, just caution Amelia to be extra vigilant."

Spencer nodded doubtfully, "I suppose so."

Morgan stared straight ahead as he drove and studiously ignored Spencer sending Amelia a text message. Spencer let out a breath of air when Amelia promptly responded to his text. He warned her to be cautious and let her know that they were back in town. He put his phone away after they arrived at the crime scene. They got out of the SUV and made their way over to the crowd of FBI agents swarming the area. One of the several agents there directed Morgan and Reid to where the body was located.

Spencer looked around the heavily forested area around the hiking trail they were on. "How was this body found? This is out of the way and it's not peak hiking season," he observed as a tall, black woman with an FBI jacket on silently approached them.

"I'm Agent Scott. There were reports of unusual animal activity at the base of the trail, so a park ranger was dispatched to assess the situation. He found the body this morning." She grimaced, "The body is fairly well preserved due to the cold snap we've been having, but animals have been in this area recently. We will have to wait for the coroner to finish his preliminary examination." She motioned them to follow her, "He should be ready any moment now. We haven't touched anything. As soon as the body was discovered this victim was linked with the description your team had issued and we alerted you guys."

Morgan thanked her and approached the coroner who was standing a few feet away from the body scribbling notes in a notepad. "What can you tell me Doc?"

The man swallowed as though he had just eaten something foul, "The victim was strangled after being severely tortured for several days. There are ligature marks on the wrists, most likely caused by a synthetic rope that was used to tie her down. There are also bruising marks on the right ankle, likely from a shackle. There were numerous whip marks and what looks like blunt force injuries to her head and ribs that show signs of initial healing. There is also a burn mark on the victim's back, possibly caused by a taser. The victim has been here for at least a month I would guess. For more specific analyses I'll have to take the body back to the lab for a full autopsy."

Morgan and Spencer thanked the doctor and walked over to where the victim lay. She had been dumped face down in between a group of bushes, now bare of their foliage in the cold. Spencer could tell that they were going to be in for another long day.


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N: Sorry for the longer than usual delay! It seems that the family Christmas craziness has started, and with the big pile of snow that arrived on the weekend I couldn't resist taking my daughter out for her first sled ride, so I hope you'll forgive me! **

** Thanks to everyone who is now following my story, I can't believe so many of you are reading it! And a big shout out to those who have reviewed my story, I love your comments.**

**I'm finally up to season 8 in Criminal Minds, I'm so sad that Spencer never even got a chance to be with Maeve, so unfair! I'm hoping things pick up for him in season 9 (don't tell me though!).**

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Amelia hit the button on the remote to turn off the television. She had just watched the news release that JJ had given. Melissa had called from the publishing house to tell Amelia to turn on the television. The whole idea of a serial killer on the loose only an hour away freaked her out and she desperately wanted Spencer there to tell her that everything was going to be fine, but she knew that he was needed on the case.

The telephone rang causing Amelia to jump up and give a small scream. She finally noticed the gradual darkening in the living room and realized that she been lost in her thoughts for awhile. She scrambled to grab her cell phone, hoping that Spencer was calling her, and sighed when she saw Jason's name pop up.

"Hey Amy. You okay? I just saw JJ's news release," Jason asked, "I figured Spencer is out there in the field and wanted to check in on you."

Amelia smiled at her big brother's concern, "I'm fine. Nothing to worry about here, the victims were from Washington and Baltimore, not Quantico."

Jason sighed, "I suppose. So tell me how things are going with Spencer and school. I haven't heard from you in weeks."

Amelia launched into detail about her exciting job prospect, her thesis progress, and their trip to Vegas. Jason was genuinely happy for his sister, and was happy that she might be living closer to him in the future if she relocated for work. After discussing his latest article and learning about his new girlfriend Amelia said goodbye to her brother.

Looking around the small apartment Amelia felt too antsy to remain sitting any longer. She decided to do some cooking and baking to help work off her nervous energy. Amelia rummaged through the cupboards and realized that she was out of several key ingredients, so she grabbed her purse and headed out the door to the grocery store.

An hour or so later, and no word from Spencer, Amelia lugged all the grocery bags into the apartment and came to the conclusion that her kitchen was too small to really get into a cooking streak. Inspiration struck when she remembered that Dave had given her a key and an open invitation to his house. Just as she decided to make her way over to the imposing mansion Amelia's phone rang. She looked down and was relieved to see Spencer's name.

"Hey Spence! I've been so worried about you all day! I saw JJ's news conference and it freaked me out!" Amelia babbled.

"Yeah, I think we are going to be working pretty late tonight. I just wanted to call and hear your voice. What are you up to?" Spencer replied. He was standing off to the side of the conference room during a short break the team was taking.

"I was just thinking of heading over to Dave's place to do some cooking. I thought you guys would appreciate some cookies and lasagna when you get home, maybe you'll even learn to like the spinach I sneak into the sauce," Amelia answered as she bustled around putting everything she needed into a backpack. "I'm going to head out in a bit."

Spencer smiled at her thoughtfulness, "That's really kind of you. I'm sure everyone will really appreciate it, and I promise I'll give the spinach a try." He paused, "Just make sure that when you are going home from work or school in the evening you don't go alone. I can't stand the thought of anything happening to you."

Amelia shivered and hastily agreed to his request. They chatted for a few more minutes about Amelia's schoolwork and Spencer's mother before Spencer was called back to work. Amelia carefully put her cell phone into her purse and thoughtfully assessed the number of bags she wanted to bring over to Dave's house. The bags combined with Spencer's cautioning words made Amelia decide to call a taxi rather than take public transportation so that she wouldn't be waiting around in the dark.

The taxi drove up Dave's driveway and stopped at the front pathway to the entrance. Amelia thanked the driver and paid him after he helped her carry her packages to the door. She took the key out and unlocked the heavy door before turning off the alarm system. Amelia dragged all her supplies into the quiet kitchen and began to lay everything out. The echoing silence felt oppressive in the vast kitchen, so Amelia plugged her iPhone in and scrolled down to one of her favorite playlists. Lively music replaced the quiet and Amelia smiled before plunging into her assortment of ingredients.

The time passed quickly as Amelia concentrated on prepping her ingredients and assembling them in their designated dishes. Soon, mouth-watering aromas filled the air and Amelia smiled happily, the team would be so happy to have home cooked meals to eat when they got back. Two large lasagnas were cooling on the counter beside a double batch of banana muffins while the pecan pie bars were baking in the oven. Amelia portioned half of one lasagna into a container and a dozen muffins so that she could take them home, leaving the other half of the lasagna for Dave. On the full pan she left a note for Dave, asking him to bring it and the other goodies into the office for the team. The timer dinged, signaling that the pecan pie bars were done, so Amelia turned the oven off and put the oven mitts on before pulling the tray out and resting it on the cooling rack.

Thirty minutes later the kitchen was put back in order and Amelia was packing up the food she was taking home into her cooler bag. She called for a taxi, and after being told that it would be a thirty minute wait, sent Spencer a text. _Hey baby! All done cooking and baking. Just waiting for the taxi. I hope you aren't still working._

Amelia was happy when she received a return message from Spencer almost instantly, _We are just getting ready to leave. How did the cooking go? Everyone is looking forward to the fresh food tomorrow._

_It went well. I made lots. Want me to come meet you at your place tonight? _She texted back hopefully, _you live closer to Dave than I do_.

Spencer thought about it for a moment, it was already pretty late, and he would have to get up early in the morning, but he selfishly wanted Amelia beside him for comfort. Having made up his mind he answered back, _Sure, I'll be home in about 40 minutes. See you soon, love you._

Amelia gathered up her bags and decided to wait at the base of the driveway for the taxi; she was excited to see Spencer. It looked like she was going to just miss seeing Dave, but he probably wanted peace and quiet after the past few days anyway.

At the bottom of the driveway Amelia just placing her bags on the ground when a man approached her. His face was obscured in the darkness and Amelia gripped her purse tightly in her hand, ready to swing it at the man's head if necessary.

As the man stepped into the weak light Amelia relaxed. "Hi Michael, what are you doing all the way out here?"

"I just live across the street and saw you as I was taking out the trash," he glibly lied. "What are you doing out here so late?"

Amelia shuffled her feet and strained to see if the taxi was in view yet, "I'm waiting for a taxi; I was just visiting my friend."

Michael smiled and offered, "It's pretty late out, and cold. Want a lift?"

Amelia edged back a step even though Michael was being perfectly friendly, "Um, no. That's okay. I wouldn't want you to go to the trouble. Besides my taxi should be here any second."

"It's no trouble really," Michael coaxed. He took a small step forward causing Amelia to instinctively take another step back and out of the light. Before Amelia could say anything else, Michael reached into his coat and jolted her with a taser until she collapsed on the frozen ground unconscious. He quickly examined the surrounding area to ensure that there had been no witnesses before scooping up the limp body and striding over to his black Lexus SUV and placing the body inside.

The red tail lights had just faded out of view when the taxi pulled into Dave's driveway.


	26. Chapter 26

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews, I'm glad you guys are enjoying the story so far because I'm really having fun writing it! I wonder what's going to happen to Spencer and Amelia next? Ahh! The suspense! :-D**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds, just my own OCs**

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Dave turned onto his street and noticed a taxi heading back out to the main road. "_That must be Amelia,_" he thought to himself. Dave approached his driveway and slowed to a halt before turning into the drive, something was out of place, but in the darkness it was hard to see. He pulled off to the side of the road and placed his car into park before turning off the engine. He had worked for too long in the BAU to ignore his instincts. He carefully placed his hand on his gun and used a flashlight to cast a yellow glow on the area around him.

Dave caught sight of a dark fabric bag lying on the frozen grass and after thoroughly checking that no one was around he approached it. He saw two other similar grocery bags, with their contents still carefully arranged inside. Dave reached down and put his hand on one of the containers, it was cool, but not cold enough to suggest it had been outside longer than a half hour. Dave frowned and straightened himself; he directed his flashlight towards the hedge that edged his front entryway. "Amelia?" he called. He was about to call again when something metallic reflected back in the beam from his flashlight; he walked over and took a closer look.

Dave swallowed and hastily dialed Spencer, "Reid," he began as soon as Spencer answered, "has Amelia called or arrived at your place yet?"

Spencer frowned in confusion as he placed a finger in his book to mark where he had stopped reading, "No. She should be here in about 20 minutes though. Why? Is everything okay?"

"I don't know kid. I found bags containing Amelia's cooking at the base of my driveway and her purse is lying near my hedge. No sign of anyone else," Dave explained apologetically.

"What?!" Spencer jumped up, heedless of his book tumbling to the ground, "Are you sure? Maybe she went back to the house for something and forgot her purse?" Spencer practically pleaded in an attempt to avoid thinking about what might have happened.

Dave responded gently, "I think that's doubtful. My driveway is too long and she left her purse on the ground. I'm going to call Hotch."

Spencer hung up the phone in disbelief. He was still holding his phone and trying to process what Dave had said when he heard a pounding on his door.

"Reid! You in there? I know you are! If you don't answer this door I'm going to break it down!" Morgan yelled.

Spencer got up and unlocked his door still in a state of shock. Morgan took one look at Spencer and grabbed him by the shoulders. "I'm sure there's a simple explanation for this kid. I'm sure she's fine. Let's head over to Rossi's place and see what they have found."

Morgan cast a worried glance at his friend; Spencer was still uncharacteristically silent and tense. Hotch had called him right after getting off the phone with Rossi. He had instructed Morgan to check on Reid and bring him along. Spencer was too close to the case, but Hotch knew that Spencer would never stay out of it.

"Kid-" Morgan began once they had belted themselves in and started driving.

"I know what you are going to say Morgan," Spencer interrupted, "but let's look at the facts. Amelia fits the UnSub's preferences. We know the UnSub is currently looking for a new target. Quantico is within range if he's working out of the DC area, and… she's missing with no real sign of a struggle from a nice neighborhood. Going to Dave's place was a random last minute decision not part of a routine…that's why I didn't think to warn her, the UnSub must have been following her for days looking for the opportunity," Spencer finished summarizing without any expression on his face.

Morgan stared straight ahead and remained silent, Spencer was right, and it made him sick inside.

The flashing lights on Rossi's street snapped both men out of their preoccupation and helped to focus them. Morgan pulled up behind another vehicle off to the side of the street and exited the car. Spencer took a deep breath and schooled his features while chanting in his mind, _"Just do your job. We'll find her if you just do your job."_ They made their way through the small crowd in front of the crime scene tape and stopped in front of Hotch.

"What do we know?" Morgan asked.

"She's been gone for just over an hour. Rossi saw the taxi leave as he pulled onto the street. Garcia traced the taxi and found out the driver waited for 10 minutes outside the house before leaving. Amelia spoke with Reid approximately 40 minutes before that. No witnesses, no sign of a struggle." Hotch summarized with a worried frown at Spencer. "Reid, are you okay? Maybe you should-."

Spencer stared straight at Hotch and cut him off, "I've been working this case since before we even knew this was a case. I don't care if you suspend me, I'm going to be right here, doing whatever I possibly can to bring Amelia home." Abruptly he turned and walked over to where Rossi was standing, next to the bags of food Amelia had left on the driveway.

Hotch glanced at Morgan and instructed, "Keep an eye on him."

Morgan ran a hand over his head in agitation, "Yeah, sure thing."

JJ and Prentiss approached Hotch and Morgan, before Prentiss spoke up, "We've canvassed all the neighbors, and nobody saw anything out of the ordinary. The neighbor across the street says he might have seen a black SUV, but that's it."

"If it was a black SUV it must have been a newer model, otherwise it would have stood out too much on this street," Spencer joined in as he and Rossi walked over.

Rossi nodded, "It would most likely have been a higher end model as well to blend in here."

"I don't think there is much else we can find here. Let's head back to headquarters and start looking over all the other files. There must be a link. JJ can you call Melissa and Jason and have them brought over to the office. We need to accurately reconstruct Amelia's schedule for the last few weeks. Rossi, you interview Reid," Hotch stoically issued his instructions to the team as a way to keep them focused. Varying degrees of shock and worry were painted across all their faces. Spencer's face was still a blank mask, and that worried Hotch most of all.

Exasperated and angry, Spencer threw his hands up in the air, "I don't know what else you want me to say Rossi! I've already told you everything that we did in the last month and a half. I know you are just stalling me to keep me out of the investigation. It won't work. I'm going to do my job and find her." Spencer slammed his hands down on the table in front of him as he said the last part. He scraped his chair back and stormed out of the office heading towards the conference room and all the information they had gathered. He took a deep breath and made his way over to the map of the area, "_Concentrate…work out the geographical profile and you'll find her," _he thought to himself. He continued to examine the map and the notes he had been taking earlier in the day.

JJ was interviewing Melissa and asked her if Amelia had mentioned meeting anybody out of the ordinary when she remembered the persistent customer that she and Penelope had witnessed. His appearance fit what the friend of the victim from Baltimore had described. JJ winced, it also fit the physical appearance of a million other men, but at least it was something. Excusing herself from Melissa JJ made her way over to Penelope.

"Garcia, do you remember that customer who was bugging Amelia?" JJ asked as she walked into Penelope's office.

Penelope's usual bright and cheerful personality seemed flat and worn as she worked furiously at her desk. She popped her head up and around at JJ's question. "I do," she breathed, "Do you think…?" she trailed off. Without asking anything further she hacked into Poppy's security footage and examined it quickly, "Nothing. He kept his face hidden from the camera."

JJ tilted her head to the side, "Didn't he mention he worked nearby? Maybe he wasn't lying. Can you find me a list of employers within a 10 minute radius of the café that would require a mid to senior level white collar management type position?"

"Yes," Garcia quickly worked and compiled a fairly lengthy list. She sent it to JJ's tablet and then continued to work on pulling the other information that had been requested by the team. JJ quietly thanked her and left. Penelope's fingers stopped suddenly, "Wait a second!" She hurriedly pulled the security footage from Poppy's again and focused in on the front entrance. Two police officers had walked in and it was possible that their car was parked out front. If it was, it might have video of the man exiting the café. Penelope accessed the police station's video footage and began searching for the video clip she wanted. Several minutes passed and a beeping sound alerted Penelope that one of her searches had found a hit. She swiveled around in her chair and checked, before standing up and running over to the conference room.

"I think I might have something," Penelope blurted out. Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and looked towards Penelope. Spencer was wound tighter than a bow string, his knuckles white as they gripped a marker.

"What is it?" Hotch asked tightly.

"I found an old homicide case that occurred about 14 years ago and a second one that occurred about 12 years ago. They don't fit the MO exactly, but they were different because the women were killed in what appeared to be BDSM scenes gone wrong."

"And?" Prentiss prodded.

"Here…" Penelope brought the file up on the screen in the conference room. "I've already sent the details to you. I have to get back..." She didn't mention her search for video footage. It was a long shot, and she didn't want to get their hopes up.

"Thanks Garcia," Rossi murmured as she flew out the door.

Hotch quickly scanned the case files, "Victim one was a student at Columbia. She was killed in what police thought to be a BDSM scene gone wrong." He glanced at the pictures on the screen, "The victim was tied, had whip marks on her body, and was strangled afterwards. Police questioned an ex boyfriend, but no charges were ever pressed. No other leads were found. Victim two was found in her home, tied, whipped and then strangled. No leads were ever found. She had recently graduated from Columbia University…"

"I think we might have our first victims," Rossi quietly said.

Hotch nodded his agreement, "Rossi, you and Prentiss go to New York now and dig. Get as much information as you can as quickly as you can." The two agents acquiesced and departed from the room. Hotch then looked towards JJ, "JJ, I'd like you to release what we know to the media. It's possible somebody has noticed something, we need to cast as wide a net as possible."

"Of course," JJ hurried from the room to call to the media and get the ball rolling.

Morgan was leaning against the wall, "So something happens with the girl from college to trigger the UnSub, and every victim after that is reliving or punishing his original victim."

"It's unlikely the UnSub is punishing his victims. More likely the UnSub enacted the scenario with the first victim to send her a message and found that it fulfilled his need for power and dominance. Remember, this UnSub doesn't get angry. He's calculated, smart, and cold," Spencer clarified. Inside he was screaming, but he knew panicking wouldn't find Amelia. He couldn't even begin to think what she was suffering right now, he just wanted to hold her and tell her that she was safe.

A couple of hours later Hotch looked at his watch, it was almost 4am, and everyone was showing high levels of fatigue. "Guys, let's take a break. Get some sleep. Come back in a few hours."

Spencer looked up angrily from the stack of files he had been poring over, "NO! We can't stop, not until we find Amy!"

JJ walked over to him and put her hand on his shoulder, "Spencer, Hotch is right, we won't be any use to her if we are falling asleep and not thinking clearly."

Spencer felt his façade begin to crumble and his voice cracked as his turbulent emotions began to pour out of him, "I can't leave; I've got to keep working. I have to find her."

JJ wrapped her arms around Spencer as Hotch and Morgan silently left the conference room, "Shh…we will. We will." Spencer inwardly crumbled and cried on JJ's shoulder, his grief overwhelming him. JJ held him for several minutes before coaxing him to lie down on the couch in Rossi's office. Spencer trembled in the darkness and couldn't bear to think of what was happening to Amelia right then.


	27. Chapter 27

**A/N: Warning! Violent/Graphic content! This chapter is rated M, if that's not your thing please skip the chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds**

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_The soft sand tickled the backs of Amelia's legs and she laughed at Spencer's obvious discomfort. They were sprawled on a large flower printed blanket on a beautiful beach. A cheerful purple bikini complimented Amelia's body, and Spencer looked scrumptious in a pair of green swimming shorts. _

_Amelia looked around her, towering cliffs surrounded their secluded beach and not another soul was in sight. The sun was shining, the waves were gently rolling in, and the white sand glistened ever so slightly. The warm breeze soothed Amelia's unease. _

_"Spence, you have to enjoy the beach, millions of people go to the beach every year and don't become sick from parasites," Amelia cajoled Spencer in an effort to make him relax._

_Spencer looked like he was about to say something, but he remained uncommonly silent. Instead, he closed his eyes and laid back onto the blanket in a more comfortable pose in an effort to enjoy the peace. Amelia studied his body languidly, he was so handsome, and she wanted nothing more than to run her hands down his body and heat things up…but something was stopping her. She frowned, there was something at the edge of her mind warning her. The beach was too perfect for her to ever want to leave, so she shrugged off the dark feeling and simply enjoyed the view._

_A couple of sea gulls shrieked in the distance and Amelia laughed as they swooped down to the water to prey on a small fish. The circle of life continued no matter where you went. The sun beat down on her body, making her begin to feel feverishly hot, a small trickle of sweat traced its way down her forehead, to her neck, and puddled in the v below her collarbone. Spencer lifted one eyelid and saw the bead of sweat. Silently, and gracefully he swept up to his feet and held a hand out to her, gesturing towards the ocean. Amelia tried to sit up, a damp cold washed over her…she couldn't get up! And graceful? When was Spencer ever truly graceful?! _

_"Spence!? What's going on?" Amelia called out in panic._

_The beautiful ocean began to melt away and brutal reality began to intrude._

Amelia blinked a few times and tried to clear her head, something was wrong, she felt like she had just lost ten fencing matches in a row. "Spence?" she weakly called out in the near darkness. _"What happened?" _she thought, feeling the panic rise. She had no idea what time it was, or where she was. Amelia tried to sit up, but something tugged at her ankle; she moved her bound hands down and felt a metal cuff around her ankle that had a chain attached. She flexed her leg a bit and discovered she only had a few feet of give on the chain. "Hello?" Amelia called out, "Is anyone there?"

A bright light clicked on, momentarily blinding Amelia. She brought her hands up to shield her eyes from the sudden glare, before lowering them to take a look around. She was in a small rectangular room that had concrete walls and a concrete floor. A metal door was directly across the room from the foot of the bed, a small metal toilet in one corner. A metal ring kept her ankle chain attached to the wall. The chain was actually quite long, but was clipped to the ring at about half of its length.

"Hello Amelia," a deep voice greeted from the left of where Amelia was lying, "I've been looking forward to having you here."

Amelia turned towards the voice and fearfully cried, "Michael! I…please, let me go. I'll do whatever you want, just please, let me go." She looked behind Michael and saw a rack and shelf with assorted whips, straps and paddles. A rope was tied beside the rack; Amelia followed the rope with her eyes and saw that it went up the ceiling where a carabineer dangled from the end; she began to tremble in panic.

Michael gave her a cold hard smile, "Yes, you will do whatever I want you to. But I'm afraid you won't be going anywhere until I'm completely finished with you. I've been planning this for some time you see, ever since I saw you in the mall before Christmas. It was sheer luck that I found you again so easily at that café afterwards."

"My boyfriend, he works for the FBI. They will be looking for me. If you let me go now I won't tell anyone and you won't get in trouble," Amelia pleaded. She felt frozen with terror; while Michael looked calm and entertained by her pleading. He deftly walked over to where the rope was tied and loosened it so that the carabineer dropped to the floor.

Bending he picked up the clip and walked over to crouch down beside Amelia, "I highly doubt they will find you or me, Amelia. I've been doing this a very long time, and no one has caught me yet. They've only recently even connected some of my toys." He began to idly stroke Amelia's hair. "Very nice," he complimented her, "shall we get started? Follow my orders and our time together will be much more pleasant, if you don't comply…well, our time together will be shorter and less pleasant for you," he finished menacingly.

Amelia screamed desperately and tried to wiggle away, but Michael grabbed her bound hands and clipped the carabineer on with practiced ease before hoisting her from the bed. Michael had lengthened her ankle chain and the ceiling rope just enough so that she could balance on her tiptoes, without any leverage to really move. Her shoulders began to ach painfully from supporting the weight of her body.

Michael stood off to the side admiring the view. Turning slightly he used a remote to turn on some music, "I like to listen to music while I work. I hope you don't mind," he commented lazily as he pulled his cream sweater over his head. "There, that's more comfortable," Michael continued as he straightened his black t-shirt, "Here, why don't I help make you more comfortable." He carefully selected a sharp exacto knife from the ledge of the rack and approach Amelia. He brought his hand up to the neckline of her sweater when Amelia tried to bite him. Michael backhanded her across the face viciously and gave her an annoyed look, "That wasn't very nice."

"Bastard," Amelia coughed out. Her ear was ringing, and her inner cheek was bleeding from being smashed into her teeth. Amelia was certain that half her face was going to be bruised and swollen.

Michael brought his hand up to Amelia's neckline again, she stood still and Michael moved closer. This time, Amelia took the opportunity to try and head butt Michael in the face, but he danced out of her range with ease. He tsked her, "I thought you might try something like that." Michael raised his hand and backhanded Amelia again; stars exploded across her vision and she became too disoriented to fight when his hand came back a third time. Small droplets of blood trickled out of her mouth and pooled on the floor.

The exacto blade cleanly sliced through Amelia sweater until it lay in shreds on the floor. Her pants, socks, and finally her bra followed until she was clad only in her red, cotton briefs. Amelia blearily watched Michael out of one eye, the other was becoming too swollen to see out of so she kept it closed.

Michael casually walked around Amelia as if he had all the time in the world. "I can see you are a fighter, I figured you would be since you spend a lot of time practicing your fencing," Michael observed, "I suppose I better ensure you can't run away if you did manage to get free." He said the last part laughingly, as though the mere possibility of her escaping was ludicrous.

"Spencer will find me," Amelia retorted with defiance. Michael raised his eyebrows mockingly and walked over to his wall of implements.

Amelia began to feel the fight drain out of her when he began to lightly touch a few of the different wooden paddles. Despair filled her, "_Maybe there is no way to escape…"_

Michael smiled when he selected the paddle he wanted. He approached Amelia and grabbed her unbound foot leaving her balancing precariously on one foot. "I'll stop when you thank me and mean it," he husked.

Amelia's voice became too hoarse to continue screaming, instead, she was reduced to quiet sobbing. She thanked him, but still he continued. The pain was so excruciating, she didn't know if she would ever be able to walk again. Finally, blessedly, Amelia began to disassociate herself from the pain and started to fade from consciousness.

Michael paused as he felt Amelia's body begin to go slack. "Now now, you can't be doing that, you haven't thanked me properly yet," he taunted as he brought a cold wet washcloth over to Amelia and wiped her face with it.

Amelia snapped her good eye open again and desperately whispered, "Thank you Michael. Thank you so much for the attention you are giving me. I truly appreciate it."

Michael gave her a beaming smile of satisfaction, "That wasn't so hard was it? Lesson learned, follow my instructions and things won't be so bad. If you are this quick of a learner, we could have days of fun."

Amelia swallowed back the bile in her throat, and nodded weakly. The longer she could hang on, the more time Spencer had to find her. She had to hold on to that, Spencer _would_ find her.

Michael put his paddle away and loosened the rope holding Amelia up. She dropped to the ground in a heap. Her shoulders and arms were too sore to even prop herself up and she couldn't stand because of the pain in her feet.

Michael bent down to pick Amelia up in his arms; he carefully placed her back on the narrow bed and drew a blanket over her. "I'll bring you some food and water, you'll need your strength for later," he advised before he went out the metal door, locking it securely behind him. Amelia curled into a ball and wept brokenly.

_"I have to stay strong, Spencer will find me, he'll come. I can't give this psycho the satisfaction of seeing me break,"_ Amelia chanted to herself. She brought her hand to her mouth and bit her fist to stop the screaming that threatened to overwhelm her.

Awhile later Amelia heard the metal door open again, but was too exhausted to look. Michael walked over and placed an open bottle of water and a paper plate containing a sandwich on the floor beside her. Without a word he turned and left again. Amelia wasn't sure how much time had passed, but finally the tremors in her body began to cease and she realized she was starving. She scooted up to a semi-seated position and grabbed the food. It was difficult eating with her hands bound, but she managed. When she finished eating the lights cut out. _"He must have a camera in here to watch me," _she realized. Amelia had no way to know what time it was, but she was exhausted and in more pain than she could ever remember being in. She closed her eyes and slept restlessly. She tried to dream that she was home safe with Spencer or that they were back on the idyllic beach, only to feel the weight of the ankle chain or the rawness of her bound wrists jerk her back to reality.

The time passed very slowly in the cold, dark cell.

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**A/N: I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas (or a happy celebration for whatever special event your faith may hold this time of year)! I truly meant to post this chapter earlier, but the holiday festivities got in the way...plus, I didn't think such a dark scene would be appropriate to post on Christmas Day.**

** Ahh! I hated doing this to Amelia, but it had to happen for the story. So do you think Spencer will find Amelia before things get any worse? **

** This is my first time writing a dark scene like this, did you like it? Was it too much, not enough? Feedback would be really helpful because I can incorporate the suggestions into future chapters, and unfortunately for Amelia, there's probably more trouble in store for her (or maybe Spence?).**

**Cheers!**


	28. Chapter 28

**A/N: Thank you and welcome to the readers who have just followed my story! I can't believe so many people are reading about Amelia and Spencer! I hope everyone is enjoying their adventures to date, there is lots more to come.**

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Spencer jolted awake and looked around with confusion, _"What am I…?" _The events of the previous mind crashed through his brain and he checked his watch, "_10am?!"_ He tossed aside the blanket covering him, and distractedly realized that JJ must have covered him up after he collapsed. He stumbled down the hall into the conference room where Hotch sat alone rereading the case files.

"Nothing yet, Reid," Hotch greeted him. "Prentiss and Rossi have started their interviews in New York. They will fly back tonight when they finish. Everyone else went home to sleep for a bit, they should be back here within an hour. Get cleaned up and eat something before coming back in here," Hotch said reassuringly. Despite his lack of sleep, Hotch looked as immaculate as always in a clean, pressed suit.

Spencer was about to leave when he remembered something, "Melissa and Jason…" he trailed off, not knowing what to say.

"Morgan and JJ briefed them, they are staying at Melissa and Amelia's apartment," Hotch replied. Spencer nodded briefly and exited the room with relief; he couldn't bear to see Jason or Melissa without having something solid to go on.

Two large cups of coffee and a rushed shower later, Spencer was once again hard at work. He was keeping a tight lid on his emotions in an attempt to stay clear headed; Amelia needed him to be strong, and he couldn't waste valuable time falling to pieces. The team had straggled in shortly after Spencer finished his fist cup of coffee; they noticed his determination and made it easier on him by not giving him any pitying looks, or at least hiding them from him.

Once everyone was seated Hotch called for their attention to review what they had learned so far. JJ brought out the list of possible workplaces that Garcia had compiled. Hotch nodded and decided that they would go out to canvass the businesses first.

Pausing, Hotch directed his gaze towards Spencer, "Reid, I want you to stay here and run point. I want you to continue reviewing the information we have and looking for other possible leads we can follow."

"I really think I'd be more useful out in the field," Spencer began with determination, but Hotch cut him off.

"No, you're objectivity is compromised. I can't have you losing it out in the field, stay here, run point and we will relay all information back to you."

Spencer pushed back from the table and his face clouded over, JJ leaned over and put her hand on his arm. She looked at him with assurance, "Spence, he's right. Stay here, no one can read these files faster than you. You'll be more help here."

Spencer sat back down heavily and nodded. He pulled another pile of towering files towards him and began to sift through the information, trying to glean any hint or clue about who the UnSub was or where he might have taken Amelia.

The rest of the team updated several other field agents who were joining them and determinedly made their way out to the garage to begin their hunt.

Several fruitless hours later Morgan slammed his hand down on the dashboard of the SUV he was sharing with Hotch and JJ.

Hotch shifted his glance from the road to Morgan's agitated face. "We knew this was a long shot," he tried to sooth Morgan.

"That's not good enough! We have to find the bastard who has Amelia. If we don't find her before he…" Morgan drew in a deep breath, "Well, I don't want to be the one to have to break it to Reid. The kid would be devastated. He's already in hell, knowing exactly what Amelia is going through right now."

JJ's face blanched, but she quickly composed herself. Hotch stared straight ahead as he pulled back into the FBI headquarters, "It won't come to that. We'll find her."

Just as the team was heading back up to the conference room Garcia bustled out of her office and called out, "I've got something!" Morgan, Hotch and JJ sped up their pace and joined Garcia and Reid in the conference room. The rest of the team shared a brief worried look when they caught sight of Spencer's haggard and worried face. It was evident that their genius was really starting to break under the stress, and they resolved to work even harder to find Amelia. Morgan's words were still echoing in their heads.

Garcia tilted to the side and wrapped one arm around Spencer, giving him a tight squeeze before she drew their attention to the screen on the wall. "I did some digging when JJ mentioned that the customer could be the UnSub. Unfortunately, Amelia never told us his name, and we didn't overhear it. I looked over the video surveillance from Poppy's but all I got was a picture of the back of his head. However," Garcia paused and began to smile, "I _did _see that two police officers came in as the possible UnSub was leaving, after some digging I was able to find the video footage that their patrol car takes. We were lucky that they forgot to turn off the camera during their lunch break that day."

Spencer had his eyes glued to Garcia, but was unable to get his thoughts into any kind of order. Morgan stared beseechingly at Garcia, "Please, baby girl tell me you know who the man is."

Garcia shook her head apologetically, "I'm really sorry; I wish I did, but he was careful to not have his face directed at that camera. But what I did discover was that he walked a short distance down the street and got into a black Lexus SUV. I couldn't get his license plate but I'm still checking traffic cameras to see if I can get it that way."

Hotch opened his mouth ready to ask a question when Garcia stalled him with a raised hand, "Your technical queen has also managed to confirm that the same SUV parked in the same location several times over the past two months. I was able to use an ATM camera to capture a partial picture of the SUV, nothing to identify the UnSub, but enough to verify he was watching her."

Hotch thanked Garcia and addressed her and JJ, "Both of you managed to get a look at our UnSub, JJ go see the sketch artist and get a picture made up then release it to the press along with everything else we know. I want his face everywhere. Garcia, please start the search that Rossi requested."

JJ and Garcia were walking towards the door when Spencer stood up and awkwardly hugged Garcia, "Thank you," he whispered. Garcia smiled encouragingly back at him as he resumed his seat.

Hotch cleared his throat, "We came up empty on the workplace canvass. Rossi called, they are on their way back from New York. They think they have a possible lead for us. The ex boyfriend of the first victim, Ryan Kent, was brought in for questioning but was never charged because of some fancy footwork by a high powered lawyer. It turns out the same man dated the second victim while in college, but police never made the connection to the first because the victim was killed after graduating. Those kills were personal; possibly revenge for some imagined slight. Garcia has the details and is running a background check on him now. Hopefully she will be able to find something for us." Hotch took a breath and asked Reid, "Were you able to create a new geographical profile?"

Spencer's face clouded a bit, "The UnSub is using a very wide area to select his victims from, which makes me believe that he travels for work. He has to be fairly flexible in his job to afford the time required in watching these victims. Garcia mentioned that she saw the SUV outside of Poppy's on multiple occasions," Spencer ducked his head for a moment and tried to compose himself as his anger threatened to overwhelm him, "…in order for him to be there during the daytime, he must be able to move about freely in his job. His high end car also dictates that he comes from some wealth. Based on the abduction and dump sites, I would guess that the UnSub lives somewhere in the outskirts of Washington DC; something in a rural area without many neighbors."

Morgan leaned back in his chair, "Is it possible the UnSub is independently wealthy and doesn't work?"

Hotch shook his head, "No, this man likes control and he values his self image. He gains pleasure from controlling those around him. Flaunting his wealth and appearance socially would feed his desire to psychologically make others feel inferior. If he didn't work he wouldn't be able to satisfy those urges on a daily basis. It's probable that he has a job that requires him to leave an office and visit clients, something like a lawyer or real estate agent."

Reid jumped up from the table, "The club! Amelia said that the customer from Poppy's was at the bar with her." He hit the conference button on the table to ask Penelope to check the video surveillance of the lounge they had gone too.

Garcia pulled up the video footage from _The Heat_ and reviewed it quickly. "Damn," she said sourly, "I'm sorry Reid, this guy is smart. He managed to angle himself away from every camera in the lounge. After the incident at the bar I do have him standing in the back of the club watching the dance floor until we left though. This guy is definitely the one we are after. I'll keep searching. Garcia out."

Reid dropped his head to the table and choked out, "Time is running out, when he's tired of hurting her, he's going to…" Morgan walked over and put a comforting hand on his shoulder as Hotch assured him, "We'll find her."


	29. Chapter 29

**A/N: My town got hit with a bit of a blizzard, so after a freezing cold walk with the dog I decided to snuggle in and do some writing. **

**Warning! This chapter is rated M.**

**Disclaimer: (Sorry, I just realized that I haven't posted this in awhile) I do not own Criminal Minds.**

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Blood and sweat dripped down Amelia's body, she was certain that Michael had struck every single part of her with one of his sadistic "tools." Time had ceased to have any meaning in her concrete cell; her time was spent either being hurt and belittled or cowering on the narrow bed. Amelia was fairly certain she had a concussion from the repeated blows to face and head; her vision was blurry and she was constantly fading in and out of consciousness, which was actually a blessing sometimes. Her feet still couldn't bear any of her weight from the first beating Michael had delivered to her. Amelia didn't even want to think about what other injuries she might have or what she looked like; the only thing holding her sanity together was her hope that Spencer would save her.

Michael cracked his neck and shook out his arms; they had a slight ache in them from the repeated strain of whipping his latest toy. He gave Amelia a cursory look as he hung up his tools on the rack, she was limply dangling from the rope with her hair covering her face, only the rapid rise and fall of her chest proved that she was still alive. Satisfaction spread throughout him, _"This is power,_" he thought to himself, _"Time to move on to the next round._"

Amelia felt the rope above her head go slack a second before she fell to the floor. Her shoulders screamed in protest as the fiery needle pricks began to dance through her upper body signaling the return of blood flow. Instinctively she curled into as tight a ball as possible in a feeble effort to protect herself.

Michael stepped in front of the cowering woman and kicked her viciously in the ribs before threatening, "You're pathetic. I barely even worked up a sweat this time. If you want me to keep playing with you, you better show me some spirit or else we're through here. And I have to say, I would be _really _disappointed in you."

Amelia fought to still her shaking and sobs, closed her unswollen eye and took a deep breath with her aching lungs. Carefully, she slid her hands underneath her body and pushed herself up until she was kneeling on the cold concrete in front of the monster. Amelia attempted to clear her mind and distance herself from her surroundings; she cast a quick glance at Michael and felt the walls in her mind crumble to dust.

"I'm sorry," she choked out, "I still want to play. Please, can we play another game?" Amelia forced herself to meet the beautiful emerald green eyes of her nightmare. He smiled in pleasure.

"Excellent, I believe I can come up with another game to play. If you want a drop of food or water for the rest of your visit, you better not fuck this up. Remember, the rest of your stay can make what we've done together seem like a picnic." Michael began to unbutton his pants and positioned himself directly in front of Amelia's face, "Show me how much you love Spencer and how badly you want to see him again."

As soon as she was alone again Amelia crawled over to the small toilet in the corner, and threw up until she had nothing but dry heaves wracking her body. Wearily she wiped her mouth and forced herself to move onto the bed. She curled up in one corner and wrapped her arms around herself before weeping uncontrollably. Amelia wasn't sure how much more she could take mentally or physically. It became glaringly obvious that Michael had been watching her and Spencer together, because he had made several references to private events that he had witnessed between them. His words felt like a poison infecting and ultimately destroying the happy memories that had been her solace in this hell. Tears streamed down her face, but she had learned to keep them silent once she realized that the sound of them made Michael excited.

Amelia heard the lock turning in the door and hastily wiped her eyes, wincing as she chafed at her swollen eye. Michael calmly strode back into the room and deposited another paper plate with food on the floor. He handed Amelia the bottle of water and roughly grabbed a fistful of her hair until she took it. Amelia watched him between the lank strands of hair covering her face and gripped the bottle in her hands. He had clearly taken the time to get cleaned up; he was wearing an expensive looking suit and twirled keys in his hand.

"Drink," he ordered. Amelia hesitated a moment until she saw his hand begin to lift again, she quickly tipped the bottle to her lips and took a hefty swallow. Amelia finished the bottle when he gestured for her to continue.

Michael lowered his hand and smiled, "I'm going out for a bit to close an important business deal. When I get back, we'll celebrate in style. I've given you some sleeping tablets to ensure that you are well rested for the big event. Sleep tight and dream of me."

Amelia could see the desire in his eyes and the proof on his body, but the drugs worked quickly in her weakened state and she slumped over unconscious. Michael shifted Amelia so that she was lying down in a more natural position and ran his hand down the front of her body until they rested at the elastic of her underwear.

"Mmm, yes, we'll definitely have a good celebration." Michael turned and exited the room, pausing for a moment outside the room to turn off the lights.

Several hours later Amelia awoke, still groggy from the drugs she been given. She looked down at the plate of food beside the bed and felt no appetite, but picked up the sandwich anyway. She had left food uneaten once before and had been severely punished for it. _"Pick your battles Amelia,"_ She coached herself bravely.

Gingerly, Amelia lowered her feet to the ground but the pain in her feet stopped her from putting any weight on them. Instead she slid down and crawled over to the toilet. On the way she noticed a bucket of water, soap, towel, and a note. Amelia picked the note up with trembling fingers and read it, _"Wash thoroughly, I'm watching."_

There was something about the ignominy of being instructed to wash that blazed a fire of rebellion in Amelia. She directed her gaze towards the camera and screamed, "You sick bastard! I hate you! Burn in hell you filthy piece of shit!" She threw the piece of paper away and knocked the bucket over with her hand. Before she was able to make another move the door opened and Michael walked through. He had removed the suit jacket and tie, but had only rolled the sleeves of the shirt up.

His evening had gone well with his clients. They had agreed to his investment proposal and had signed the paperwork. He was going to make a lot of money on the deal and was in the mood to celebrate. He knew that the note would set Amelia off and he reveled in it. The toys were no fun when they became too docile, he liked to work away at their spirit a little at a time and watch the hope slowly bleed out of them. Sometimes he offered the false hope of letting them go if they behave and followed his instructions, but the smart ones usually figured out that they wouldn't be leaving alive fairly quickly.

He didn't even try stringing Amelia along with the belief that he would let her go after he was finished; he knew that she wouldn't believe it. Besides, it was more fun watching her cling to the belief that her precious boyfriend would rescue her and then watch her face contort in mental agony when he taunted her about his inability to locate her. His favorite memory of Amelia was shortly after her first session; he left the door open for her, unchained her leg, and offered her 10 minutes to run. She hadn't even made it to the basement staircase when the time elapsed, and he had taken great satisfaction in dragging her back to her cell by the hair. That was had been the only escape offer he made to her.

Michael shifted his attention back to the dirty, bleeding form on the floor. He crouched down a few feet away from her and said nonchalantly, "If you don't wash yourself, I'll do it for you. Your choice, personally, I'd prefer to wash you. I just assumed that you would rather do it yourself. Now, I'm going to refill that bucket of water, and this time it's going to be used – one way or another." He reached across her and grabbed the handle of the bucket. He left the metal door open and Amelia could here water splashing into the bucket.

A few moments later he reappeared and deposited the bucket beside her. "So, what's it going to be Amelia?" he asked conversationally.

"I'll do it," Amelia croaked out. "_Anything to keep your disgusting hands off me a while longer,"_ she thought to herself.

Michael smiled genially back at her, "I figured you might. I'll get you a stool so you have an easier time." He disappeared outside the room again and then came back with a small plastic stool in hand, after placing it on the ground with the other items he turned to leave, "I'm going to go freshen up as well, use this time wisely or else I'll finish up for you."

Amelia was thrown by his offer of the stool. Occasionally, he acted polite and considerate and Amelia suspected that he did so purposefully in an effort to keep her off balance. She shook her head and sat on the stool to wash; at least this would delay his "celebration" a little bit more. The warm water felt blissful on her blood and sweat dried skin, but the soap burned every single laceration that marked her body. After she finished washing her body Amelia hesitated, _"Should I wash my hair too?_" she worried, _"He said to wash thoroughly…" _Amelia decided to err on the side of caution and washed her hair as best she could with her hands still tied together. _"At least my hands aren't tightly bound together anymore, otherwise this would have been impossible,"_ she reflected grimly. Sometime in the last day or so he had tied her hands so they were restrained in a similar way to handcuffs.

After washing her hair and drying it as best she could, Amelia realized that she didn't have a brush to take out the tangles. Before she could try finger brushing it Michael reappeared dressed only in black slacks.

"Stay still," he ordered. Amelia froze on the stool, but relaxed slightly when he began to pull a brush through her hair.

Once the tangles were gone he stripped the bed of the soiled sheets and replaced them with clean ones.

"I always hate getting clean, only to climb into dirty clothes or sheets," he explained with a carefree air. A sick feeling began to overwhelm Amelia and she tried to scramble off her stool, but her extensive injuries and ankle chain wouldn't allow her to move any further.

Michael loomed over her and leered, "Time for the celebration. This should take _all _night. Shall we get started?" He kicked away her stool as he clipped the dreaded rope back onto her wrists.

Amelia threw her head back as the pain started again and screamed out her agony. _"Spencer! Please, save me…I can't…I can't hold on much longer,"_ she wordlessly prayed, only to realize that she had said the words out loud when Michael started to laugh at her.

Michael watched Amelia finally breaking down and became aroused. He leaned in close to her and roughly gripped her chin in his hand, "Tell me you like it, tell me how good it feels."

A sob escaped from Amelia and she gave in, "I…I like it. It feels so good." The tears streamed down her face and Michael wiped them away with his thumb.

"Then let's continue," he chuckled.

"No!" Amelia's protestations were cut off as Michael picked up where he left off.

It was just about time to finish, but Michael wanted her to last a bit longer so he lightened his strokes and blows, ensuring that she didn't bleed too badly. He also took care to wipe her down periodically; he didn't like blood smearing on his skin, he found it too distracting.


	30. Chapter 30

**A/N: Warning! This chapter has scenes that are rated M.**

**It's been a balmy -35 degrees celcius outside (that's -31 farenheit for the US), and even though I had to run a few errands, I decided to skip the daily dog walk and work on Amelia and Spencer's story instead. I'm heading away for the weekend, so I probably won't be able to update until next week sometime, for which I apologize. I hope you enjoy today's chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds, just my own OCs.**

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Spencer sat down heavily in the conference room chair and cradled his head in his hands as shame overwhelmed him. Hotch and Morgan sat beside him and tried to offer some comfort.

"It's not your fault kid. We are all working as hard as we can. Jason knows that, he's just upset and looking for someone to take it out on. You're an easy target for him," Morgan tried to reassure Spencer. Jason had just stormed out of the bullpen after yelling at Spencer and the rest of the team.

"No, he's right. What kind of genius am I that I can't figure this out? She's _my_ girlfriend, not some nameless victim and I'm no closer to finding her than I was three hours ago!" Spencer retorted angrily.

"We're in this as a team Reid. We will find her. Rossi and Prentiss are due back any minute and Garcia is almost done her search on Ryan Kent," Hotch replied steadily. Inwardly he prayed that Garcia finished her search soon and had something to go on, because all of their paper leads were dead ends at the moment.

"Are we interrupting?" Rossi asked from the doorway with a worried frown at Spencer.

"No," Spencer replied as he rubbed his face with his hands and straightened up in his chair, "No, we're good." Rossi nodded and sat down at the table with Emily joining him.

"What happened in New York?" Hotch asked.

Prentiss began to brief the team, "We found out that Ryan Kent dated both the victims while in University. Friends stated that he was controlling and mentally abusive towards the women, but was very sly in doing so; a couple of the victims' friends stated that he had made unusual sexual requests that the victims wouldn't elaborate on. The friends in both cases suspected that he was sexually abusing them and then threatening them so that they wouldn't say anything. Eventually, the two women found the courage to break up with Kent, which he took surprisingly well."

Spencer interrupted, "If Ryan Kent is our UnSub that would be very characteristic. Sadistic rapists don't typically act with anger; they just move on to their next tactic or file away the grievance to address at a later time with cool calculation."

"Well that's what he did," Rossi continued, "he was smart and covered his tracks. It was a full year after the breakup with the second girlfriend before she was tortured and killed. The first girlfriend wasn't murdered until 3 years afterwards, a year after she had graduated. Her death was definitely more personal than the first; the amount of torture that was inflicted was significantly greater than the first victim."

"Why didn't the police charge him?" Morgan questioned.

"Kent had a solid alibi for the first murder investigation, and it turns out that his mother is a very successful lawyer in Manhattan. She was able to pull some strings and Kent was left alone. He wasn't even brought in for the second case; the police never connected the victims together. The cases went cold after that. We met the mother and she definitely had some inferiority complexes. She has a male PA and spent our interview demeaning him and her husband. It was odd, she didn't seem to harbor the same resentment towards her son, and it was like she placed him on a pedestal. The father seemed nice enough, but was obviously under his wife's thumb, she called him as were leaving her office and we heard her warn him to keep his 'loose trap shut,'" Prentiss finished.

"So he had knowledge of court proceedings and an idea of how to maneuver around police investigations," Morgan bit out angrily, "Plus a good fallback with mommy around to clean up his messes."

"Precisely," Rossi said with disgust.

Spencer rolled the new information around in his head, "So it's possible that the UnSub has been forced to assume an alpha male role, while watching his mother emasculate his father. This would be very hard for a child to assimilate. It is possible that he views the women as instruments to assert his superiority over his mother in a way his father never could."

"That would explain the violent nature of his attacks," Prentiss noted.

"Yeah, matriarchal issues tend to produce some of the most violent crimes," Morgan leaned forward in his chair and put his hands flat on the table, "Not that that is any excuse for what he's doing."

Hotch rubbed his eyes with his fingertips before leaning across the table and hit the conference button to connect to Garcia.

"Garcia," she clipped out.

"I need an update," Hotch stated.

"Give me two minutes sir and I'll bring everything to you," Garcia replied and cut the connection.

Spencer couldn't contain himself and jumped to his feet to start pacing back and forth. Morgan, Hotch and JJ filled Rossi and Prentiss in on what they had missed.

Garcia bustled into the room with a hopeful look on her face, Spencer felt his own optimism rising.

Garcia paused and made sure that she had everyone's full attention before turning to the screen on the wall, "Okay, Ryan Kent was pretty hard to trace, but here is what I found. Ryan Kent's mother is a senior partner in a criminal defense law firm in Manhattan; she spends a lot her time greasing local politicians' hands to help make her trials go smoother. Ryan's father owns an IT support company, this is what made tracking Ryan so difficult. Ryan graduated from Columbia with an MBA in business and began working as a financial advisor in Manhattan."

"Financial advisors would travel around to visit clients. That would explain his comfort with the different areas," Spencer interrupted.

Garcia nodded and continued her summary, "His father managed to have several of Ryan's public files deleted or encrypted. Once Ryan graduated he became a ghost, until I was able to discover that he had legally changed his name to Michael Bellamy. Michael was his middle name and Bellamy was his mother's maiden name. He then began to do his banking through third party dummy companies and offshore accounts in an effort to evade taxes. It took some time, but since I'm amazing I was able to trace one of the credit cards that he uses. This is where it get's interesting," Garcia paused, "Ryan took routine vacations in both New Hampshire and Vermont every year. His records prove that he was there when the murders in those towns occurred. I also managed to get into his client lists, and I discovered that he has clients in each of the areas close to where women were abducted."

"Where is he now Garcia?" Spencer practically shouted in desperation.

"Right, right, sorry," Garcia babbled before drawing in a breath and clicking to a fresh screen," Michael Bellamy transferred to the Washington DC office of his financial firm in June 2010 and bought a house in a rural area of Washington DC." Spencer was about to shout again when Garcia quickly finished, "I've already sent the address to your cell phones. Bring Amelia home safe."

The last part of her summary was barely heard as everyone jumped from their seats and ran out the door. Penelope shivered; the looks on the team's faces made her cross her fingers that she hadn't been too late in finding out the address. Either way, Ryan Kent aka Michael Bellamy, was in for a nasty surprise, and Garcia couldn't have been more pleased.

Spencer stared straight ahead as the black SUV sped up the interstate with sirens blaring. Now that he was so close to finding Amelia he was praying that they weren't too late, and worrying about what condition she would be in when they found her. Slowly his mind began to uncharacteristically think about all the ways he wanted to hurt the UnSub for daring to touch Amelia. He was shaken out of his dark thoughts when JJ tapped on his shoulder from the back seat. Spencer realized that Hotch was calling his name beside him from the driver's seat.

"Reid…Reid!" Hotch repeated as he cast a worried look at Spencer's angry face.

Spencer turned and focused on Hotch, "I know what you are going to say, and I'm going to repeat what I said the last time you told me to stay out of it. It's not going to happen. Unless you shoot me and handcuff me I am going in there."

Resigned, Hotch closed his eyes for a moment before responding to Spencer, "Fine, but let Morgan and I go in first. I don't want you to lose your cool and put everyone in danger."

Spencer was about to argue when Hotch cut him off, "If you don't give me your word on this, I _will _handcuff you and lock you in the back of a squad car."

Spencer's face displayed resigned acceptance, he knew that Hotch was right. He had very little experience in taking point on raids, and he couldn't let his pride get in the way of Amelia's safety. Spencer nodded to Hotch, "Fine, I'll run backup for you and Morgan."

JJ squeezed Spencer's shoulder comfortingly and softly said, "She'll be fine. We'll get to her in time."

The strain in Hotch's shoulders lessened a bit. That was one less thing to worry about. It was actually better for Spencer to be secondary anyway, it would be Spencer's responsibility to take care of the Amelia while he and Morgan could focus on apprehending the UnSub…_if_ everything went according to plan, which it rarely did.

Hotch screeched to a halt in front of sprawling bungalow that backed onto a wooded area. The rest of the team pulled up beside Hotch; the wailing of police sirens and ambulances could be heard right behind them. Hotch and Spencer got out of the car and met the rest of the team. They got their gear strapped on as the police swarmed onto the scene. Morgan briefed the police while Hotch signaled for JJ to stay with Reid.

Once JJ had Reid's attention, Hotch explained the situation to Rossi and Prentiss, "If Amelia is still alive in there, we know what kind of condition she's likely to be in," Hotch began, "I need you two to keep Reid away from the UnSub, or else he's likely to try something."

"If Amelia isn't alive, I doubt there would be much we could do to stop him," Rossi observed grimly.

Prentiss nodded her agreement and dryly added on, "Hell, it would be a public service if one of us put him down. He's a monster with no compassion."

Morgan silently approached them from behind and added, "I wouldn't mind taking a piece of this guy myself." Morgan avoided eye contact with Hotch and unfastened his gun so that he could double check the clip.

Hotch exhaled, "I agree, but we have to at least try and follow protocol so we can protect Reid as much as we can. It wouldn't be fair if he had to face an internal investigation because of this." Rossi and Prentiss reluctantly agreed and joined the rest of the backup force as they sorted out their tactics with the SWAT team. Hotch eyed Morgan warily but said nothing as Morgan stiffly strode away. Finally, they were all assembled to go in.

Michael stepped back and admired his handiwork; Amelia was liberally laced with raised red welts and he had skillfully managed to avoid opening any old or new lacerations so she was hardly bleeding. He loosened the rope and let her drop to the floor, after detaching the clip Michael reached down to drag Amelia over to the bed. Amelia attempted to keep herself limp in an effort to appear defeated, but swiftly brought feet up to try and kick him in the chest which he managed to avoid. She was luckier when she curled her fingers into claws and raked them down his cheek.

"You'll never break me you asshole!" Amelia screamed out with the last of her resolve. She flipped onto her stomach and tried to crawl out of reach.

Irritation flickered across Michael's face as he fingered the scratch marks on his cheek and assessed the prone figure on the ground trying to move away; he didn't like having his appearance marred. Before Amelia could react to protect herself, Michael connected his shiny black dress shoes with her rib cage one…two…three times. Amelia doubled over and wheezed loudly; breathing became difficult. Michael gave her no time to recover. He grabbed a handful of her hair and dragged her to the bed, securing her hands on the headboard.

Amelia began to gasp and lose consciousness from the struggle to breathe but fought to stay awake, _"No, no, not like this. Please, not like this. Please don't let him rape me while I'm unconscious." _

Grinning with pleasure, Michael watched Amelia's struggle as he untied his shoes and removed them. _"The previous toys never fought this hard at the end, she better hold up until I'm finished," _he mused. He was finishing with the zipper on his pants when the small alarm that he always carried into the room beeped. Michael swore when he checked the screen, someone was breaking into his home. He refastened his pants and exited the room.

Amelia stilled when she heard Michael leave, _"Something's happening," _she groggily thought to herself. Weakly, she rattled her bindings and called out, but the sound proofing in the room easily contained her feeble attempts at being heard. Amelia tried to stay awake but the severity of her injuries overwhelmed her system and everything faded to black. Gradually, her rasping breath slowed and then stopped altogether.

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**A/N: Sorry for the cliffhanger! I just couldn't resist.**


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